Tempus951
by Hikari Sword
Summary: A time traveller appears in Academy City using high level forbidden magic. Mikoto and Stiyl must save Touma from strange masked men, the very same ones that set up a city wide magical circle! Just what do they have planned for the Imagine Breaker? Mains: Touma, Mikoto, Misaka 10032, Kuroko, Stiyl, Index, a friend indebted to Touma, Otohime Tatsugami. Action heavy. *COMPLETE*
1. Preparations

**Disclaimer: I do not own "A Certain Magical Index" series or it's characters. **Not even the nameless thugs that get beaten up off screen.

* * *

Preparations

**Prologue 1 - Nightmare**

"_No, no, no..." Mikoto hurriedly rushes to the still falling body of the boy. She magnetically grabs a large metal plate and flies it under him. Mikoto carefully matches the boy's body's speed so that he can lay on the plate safely as she slowly lowers it to the ground. "Please be alright!"_

_As the metal plate touches the earth she can clearly see the boy's body in extremely bad shape, to put it simply without going into the bloody details._

_Mikoto kneels down, shaking, and slowly pick up his head. "Hey," she speaks quietly. "Can you hear me?"_

_The boy weakly opens his eyes halfway, "Mi... ko... to...?"_

"_I'm here, everyone's here." Mikoto's voice slows down and trembles greatly._

"_Did... I..."_

"_You did," the girl paused to cry and lose control of her sadness. "You stopped it."_

"_I... see... I'm... glad..." he lets out a heavy breath as his eyes close again._

"_No you can't!" Mikoto starts to speak louder. "Wake up! Please! Don't go! Don't..." _

_It was no use, she can feel it, they all could. He was gone, all she can do now is cry loudly._

_Her crying slowed down as she senses bodies walking closer from all around her, it was all of the boy's friends and allies, from everywhere._

"_You killed him..." they chanted. _

"_No..." Mikoto protested._

"_You killed him..." again they whispered in unison. "You killed him... You killed him..."_

"_No! No!"_

"NOOOOO!" Mikoto jerks awake on her bed, breathing very heavily. She takes a moment to survey her surroundings, she was in her dorm room, her roommate is still sleeping and it was still very late at night.

"Just a dream," Mikoto held her head while trying to calm her breathing. "But why? Why did I suddenly have a dream like that?"

XXX

* * *

**Prologue 2 - One Week Ago**

It's the middle of the night and a bright sphere of light suddenly appears in an empty run down location. It sucks in several loose trash as it grows to the size of a car, then it vanishes instantly.

Where the light had originated was a silver masked and black robed hooded figure. It looks around the immediate area and starts walking in a random direction. It seemed to be looking for something.

Some punks had noticed this weird person and decided to cause trouble. "Hey, you lost?" one of them asked in an unpleasant way.

The figure stopped and turned its head in their direction.

"Yeah I'm talking to you, freak. This is our turf, so get off!"

The robed person simply raised a hand at the punk talking. His cell phone came flying out of his pocket and into the person's hand.

"Wha-HEY! You asked for it!" the punk leads the charge as he and his gang rush the strange figure.

The stranger merely pressed a button to see what it needed to see, "Perfect." It spoke through the mask, the voice was distorted but deep, the mask was meant to hide the speaker's voice. "It worked just as planned."

Done with the cell phone, the stranger tossed it in the middle of the downed gangsters. They were obviously attacked by some power in a very short amount of time. Whomever or whatever this stranger was, there's no doubt that it has tremendous power.

"Now I must prepare."

XXX

* * *

Touma Kamijou sighed as he walked the street on the way home after school. Normally one would be looking forward to a few days break from school.

(We finally get a break from school and the teacher gives us a ton of homework.) Touma pouted. (Knowing my luck, something is going to happen and I won't be able to do any of it.)

He arrived at a certain park with a certain vending machine. Touma was feeling incredibly thirsty and stands in front of the machine. This particular machine has a history to it, one which Touma would rather not think about. Right now he was weighing in on his chances with the darn thing.

"Surprise!" Someone jumped onto his back and clung onto him. Touma stumbled forward so hard his face hit the machine and a random drink popped out of it. "Did you miss me, Brother Touma?" The young girl giggled.

Touma peeled his face from the machine and carefully started to think. He doesn't recognize the voice at all so he's trying to figure out who out of every girl he knows has a small body.

Index, Komoe, Last Order, Agnese, Angelene... "Otohime?"

"Ah! You remembered!" Otohime giggled and rubs her face on Touma.

(That's right, the last time I saw Otohime was when we went to the beach.) Touma blushed a bit at the memory. (But thanks to Angel Fall she looked like Mikoto Misaka the whole time.)

"What are you doing here?" Touma asked her.

"I came to visit you silly."

"Visit me? By yourself?"

"Of course! I wanted to see you again. I even asked Mom and Dad."

"Your mother and father? Where are they?"

"Back home."

"What? You came here all alone?"

"She wasn't alone," it was then that Touma noticed an unfamiliar student with a Judgement armband just standing around. "Touma Kamijou was it? Her parents contacted the city and they agreed to let her have an escort into the city until she found you."

"That doesn't sound like your regular Judgment work. And why wasn't I told about this?"

"This is actually quite common during these breaks, and she wanted it to be a surprise," the Judgement student replies. "Anti-Skill are the ones to retrieve them outside the city and they later hand them over to us Judgement once inside the city." The student takes a quick look at the time. "Looks like you saved me a few minutes, I think I'll go relax a bit before returning to the office." And with that, the Judgment student was gone.

"Hey Touma!" Otohime jumps off of him and twirls around in front. "I saw a park on the way here a while back! Come on, come on and play with me there!"

(I never did play with her much while we were at the beach. I guess I'll make up for that here, homework be damned. I wasn't expecting to actually get them done anyway.) He picks up the drink form the vending machine and follows Otohime.

XXX

* * *

Touma's apartment phone rings loudly. The little freeloading blue haired, white robed nun, bored out of her mind, quickly jumped at the chance for some social activity.

"Hello?"

"Index?"

"Stiyl?"

"I'm just outside the door, there's something we need to talk about."

Index hurriedly opens the door for the red haired, black cloaked smoking man.

He steps in and looks around, "Oh? He's not here right now?"

"No, something must be keeping him." Index puffed. "And he better bring me some food."

"I think it's better this way," Stiyl tells her. "Let me get straight to the point. We believe that some high level, forbidden magic was used in Academy City recently."

"High level and forbidden?" Index ponders. "What kind?"

"We don't know yet," Stiyl tells her. "Last week our magicians have detected a strange magical aura suddenly appear in this city and it was gone just as fast. Although it was short, the traces of magical energy doesn't match anything we know, at least according to our agent here. But the traces that we could make out suggested that the spell interfered with the fabric of time."

"!" Index clearly knows the dangers of messing with time, and that there are several grimoires that have records of various beings attempting to time travel, but all have failed with disastrous results. "A successful time traveller? That's impossible!"

"That's what we thought too," Stiyl tells her. "But the possibility was always there."

"This is really serious, but why did they send you here? Couldn't your agent have contacted me? And how come it's only you, they should have sent more people for something like this."

"Right now all we have are rumours and guesses, no real facts, which is why only I've been sent to contact you. As for our agent, would you have trusted him?"

Index fell silent at that question. She didn't know who the agent is, so she doesn't know if she could trust that person.

"And there's more, according to him there's been multiple magical activity around the city in the past week, something about masked men. It may or may not be related but he's looking into it right now."

"Alright, let's go."

XXX

* * *

"What happened here?" Kuroko asks an Anti-Skill personal woman with blue hair. She was wearing her Judgement armband, she was here on business.

"It's the same as the other incidents around the city the past few days," the woman answers. "Several thugs pick a fight with some strange person wearing robes and a mask. This time it's a blue mask, and the power this time was water control."

"Another mask and power," Kuroko thinks for a moment, recalling information from past incidents. Within the last week there reports of gangs getting randomly beat up for no reason whatsoever. Except perhaps that the gangs were the ones that started the fight in the first place. What was in common with all the incidents were reports of men in robes wearing different colored masks. A green one that controls leaves and grass in the air, a yellow one that uses laser beams, a white one that controls the wind, and now this blue one which handles water.

"Like all the other cases, it doesn't look like we'll be able to get anything more around here," the woman interrupts Kuroko's thoughts.

"Even so, I'll stay for now and see if I can find out anything."

XXX

* * *

Mikoto sighs in disbelief. She's been looking for him since school finished yet she wasn't able to find him at all.

(AH! What am I doing?) Mikoto feels like she's getting a headache and holds her head in pain. "It's just a bad dream. Something like that can't really happen, can it?" Mikoto's mind suddenly recollects all the strange stuff that's been happening around Touma. (But... it's him after all...) Mikoto goes back to her search.

XXX

* * *

The sun begins to set over the city, Touma had spent the day with Otohime in a playground and park area. Right now Otohime is on a swing while Touma pushes her.

"Ahahaha!" Otohime is enjoying herself as Touma pushes her on the swing. "Higher Brother Touma! Higher!"

"Are you sure?" Touma asks. "Hang on tight then." He pushes the little girl slightly harder.

"Whee!"

"Please push Misaka too, Misaka requests as she sees a young girl having fun."

"Huh?" Touma got distracted by the sudden appearance of Mikoto, and he gets hit in the head by Otohime. He stumbles a bit and falls to the ground.

"Are you alright Brother Touma?" Otohime asks as she continues to swing.

"I'm alright," Touma picks himself up. He easily finds a familiar pendant on Mikoto's person.

"Brother Touma? Misaka did not now you had a younger sibling, Misaka confesses surprise at the sudden revelation."

"She's my cousin," Touma answers. "She can be quite a handful."

"That's mean!" Otohime pouted but she continues to swing by herself.

"So," Touma turned to Misaka. "Misaka's Sister, 10032 was it? What are you doing here?"

"I was merely passing by after I had finished my check up when I saw you two here. Misaka answers honestly. She seems to be having fun while you were pushing her, I want to be pushed too. Misaka makes the request again."

"Umm, aren't you a little old for these swings?" Touma asks.

"I am younger than her, Misaka counters with a hint of agitation while pointing at the girl on the swing."

"Wha- but that's..." Touma struggles for words, hoping to find a way to argue without revealing anything in front of Otohime, but gave up. "Okay... here, have a seat."

Misaka quietly gets on the other swing. Touma starts to gently push her forward.

"Is this the first time you've been on a swing?"

"No, Misaka answers. I have played on some swings before with Sister, Misaka recalls a certain day in the past."

"It sounds like you guy are getting along quite nicely." Touma slowly pushes harder with each swing.

"She even let me play in Daihaseisai when I was mistaken for her, Misaka reports."

"What?" Touma was more surprised than happy to hear that. (Then again the Sisters are physically identical clones of Mikoto, so it would be easy to mistake one of them for the original. It's best not to get any deeper into this, especially since I had my own adventure during the festival, and not one I'd like to talk about.)

"I had fun, and that's all Sister was worried about, Misaka continues."

Touma smiles, "Well, are you having fun now?"

"It's, different. Misaka struggles to define how she's feeling. I am enjoying this, it's soothing and relaxing. Misaka blushes while admitting her feelings."

A few moments pass of almost silence (Otohime giving a few shrills and giggles every now and then).

"Excuse me," Otohime suddenly speaks to Misaka. "How do you know Brother Touma?"

Touma is suddenly worried about how to answer that question.

"This boy saved my life, Misaka answers with the truth."

"Huh? So you found her surrounded by thugs in the middle of the night and rescued her?" Otohime asks Touma.

"Well…" That scenario sounds more likely to come from Misaka herself than Misaka's Sister. "Something like that."

"You're so cool Brother Touma!" Otohime was gleeful. "How did you pay him back?"

"W-wait Otohime," Touma cuts in. "I just did that because I wanted to. I don't need to be paid back."

"Even if Misaka died for him ten thousand times it wouldn't be enough to pay him back, Misaka says under her breath."

"Did you say something?" Touma didn't hear what Misaka had said.

"N-nothing, Misaka cuts the conversation short."

"She talks funny," Otohime randomly says aloud.

(You're just now noticing that?)

"Wheee!" Otohime jumps off of her swing at the highest point and lands on her feet. "I'm getting thirsty Brother Touma, let's go back to that vending machine and get a drink!"

"That machine's busted, it'll just eat your money," Touma informs her.

"But you got a drink out of it."

"That's cause you slammed my face into it!"

"Then we'll just have to do it again! Hee hee."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Perhaps I can help, Misaka offers her assistance as she slows down her swinging."

"Not you too."

"Misaka insists, Misaka glares."

XXX

* * *

Stiyl and Index arrive at a run down location of the city. There was an invisible barrier put up around the area to keep civilians out, which gives them free room to investigate. The orange sunlight was still just bright enough to see everything clearly.

"Even though the magic was casted a week ago, even I can still feel traces of it."

"Warping time is very dangerous, the effects could alter the future that's supposed to be into a future that shouldn't be."

"That sounds like science," Stiyl lets out what's in his mind.

"Sorry, I've been hanging out with one of the teachers. She knows a lot about science. She pretty fun to be around." Index carefully trances her fingers on the ground. "You've already met her, she's a short one with pink hair."

"HER?!" Stiyl screams in surprise, realizing who she was talking about.

"Yeah, science has some crazy things going on." Index rubs some dust between her fingers. "Hmm..."

"Did you find out anything?"

"It's a little weird," Index answers. "I can feel traces of not one magic, but several. There's at least 3 different spells here, and according to my grimoires, they all relate to time."

"So the possibility of a time traveller just skyrocketed."

"There's more," Index continues. "None of the spells could have had enough power to send someone back in time on their own, even with all these spells casted together it would take a tremendous amount of power to cast something like this. There's no way that's possible."

"Not according to our current knowledge, right?"

Index shudders at the thought. What they know now could have changed in the time from where the possible traveller came from. "If that's the case then-"

Stiyl quickly grabs Index and jumps away, they narrowly avoided being struck by a jet of water.

Stiyl gently puts Index down and faces the attacker, a mysterious figure covered in robes wearing a blue mask.

XXX

* * *

"Is that all, Uiharu?" Kuroko talks on the phone to her partner in the office.

"Yes, Shirai, you can return to the office and file a report."

"Alright, I'll see you soon." Kuroko hangs up. "I hate filing reports. I haven't seen Sissy since school finished. I need to see her smiling face in order to get through this obstacle!" Kuroko is suddenly fired up. Though that fire drastically died down when she hears an alarm in the distance. "That sounds like, a vending machine, in this area? Don't tell me..."

Kuroko quickly uses her teleportation ability to follow the sound of the alarm, expecting to find her precious Sissy.

What she found was her Sissy, a certain boy, and a young girl, all knocked out by a bench right next to the vending machine.

"What?"

The bench seemed to move by itself away from the three bodies. Kuroko turns to see a figure covered in robes wearing a black mask.

XXX

* * *

**XXX**

**Author:** Well, here's the first chapter. A lot of things are happening at the same time. There's Touma, Otohime and Misaka 10032, Stiyl and Index, Mikoto, and finally Kuroko. It kinda feels rushed though.

Not to mention all those masked and robed guys. Who could they be? Where did they come from? Well, all will be answered in due time (pun?).

**Changes from original idea:**

Mikoto's nightmare - That's a very important piece in the overall plot, I thought I'd add it to give a little more ominous feeling through the whole thing.

Characters - Saten and Uiharu were supposed to meet with Mikoto and Kuroko, but that proved difficult for me and the plot so I kept them separate. Several other characters were planned to be put in the story but were cut out completely or replaced with another. Which include but not limited to the other Sisters (19090 was to warn Mikoto about 10032's predicament), Sasha and Kaori.

Characters, I think, is my biggest weakness in writing fanfics. The problem lies in that I want to include as many characters as I can within a fic instead of focusing on just a few characters which will make it easier to handle. I really have no idea why I want to cram so many characters into a story.

Also I tend to prefer action fics with comedy and romance both taking 2nd.


	2. Encounter

Encounter

Before:

Touma is met with a surprise visit from his cousin, Otohime, and then from Misaka 10032.

Mikoto had a nightmare involving Touma and has been looking for him.

Stiyl arrives to inform and recruit Index regarding a possible forbidden time magic, and the possible connection to several incidents involving men in masks

Kuroko is finishing up work and looks for her Sissy. She finds her, that man and a young girl knocked out by a man in a black mask.

XXX

* * *

Mikoto hears an alarm from the distance, a very familiar sounding alarm. (It's _that_ vending machine isn't it? He's probably there.)

XXX

* * *

Kuroko warps in between the three knocked out bodies and the stranger in robes wearing a black mask, she's holding her metal spikes. "Hold it! I'm from Judgement!" She takes out her spikes, "And right now you better give me a damn good explanation for what you did here!" Behind her lay her precious Sissy, knocked unconscious by the man in robes. It's taking all of her will power to stay under control and not go completely berserk.

"I don't have time to play," says the figure in a distorted voice. With a swing of a hand, Kuroko's spikes fly away.

"How did you-?" With little time to react the stranger controls a bench to send flying at her, the same bench that knocked out the three people next to the vending machine.

Kuroko teleported behind the man and kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him down. Standing on top of him, she reaches for more spikes only to find none at all. "Where'd they g- AH!" Kuroko was blasted from behind by an unseen enemy. It wasn't a powerful one, just enough to push her off of the black masked stranger.

Turning around Kuroko sees another man in robes, but this one is wearing a yellow mask. The black masked one gets up as well, Kuroko readies for a fight.

"Stop," the black masked one tells her. "Unless you want to see them get hurt."

The girl turns to see her spikes floating just in front of the three unconscious bodies. (Magnetism? How come Sissy didn't sense him?) The two figures walked over to the three bodies, the girl couldn't do anything. The yellow masked stranger knelt down to all three of them.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Kuroko yells.

"We can either take her with us, as a hostage, or we can kill her here and now."

Kuroko internally screams but kept her composure, though shaking.

"Ready?" the black mask asks the yellow mask.

"Yes," the yellow mask plants his hands so that he's touching both girl's bodies. "But what about this boy?"

"I will take him," the black mask answers as he summons the bench again. The boy is put onto it and the man in the black mask sits down on it. With a swing of his hand he sends the floating spikes flying into the sky, the bench floated up and flew into the distance while the yellow mask disappeared with the two girls.

"SISSY!"

Meanwhile, Mikoto hid in the distance, she saw and heard the last bits of what had happened. The boy, her sister, and a young girl were taken by a mysterious group of robed men. She doesn't know what's going on, all she does know is that she needs to stay with Kuroko to get any kind of lead to save them.

XXX

* * *

"We weren't expecting you so soon, Index Librorum Prohibitorum," the blue masked stranger speaks to them.

"Who are you?" Stiyl demands an answer.

"Does it matter?" the masked man taunts.

"Wait Stiyl," Index pulls on his cloak. "Something's off about him."

"Off?"

"He doesn't feel human," Index tells him. "I'm sensing some kind of doppelganger magic, but I can't tell which one."

"Red hair, barcode…" the masked man observes. "You must be the fire guy from Necessarius."

"The name's Stiyl, now give me yours."

"Unfortunately, we… doppelgangers, don't have names. We're just copies after all. But if you like, you can call me Blue." The man points to his mask.

"You mean there's more?" Index shouts.

"Five, to be exact. Our original doesn't want to risk any more, our personalities are unstable enough as it is."

"Soul Split," Index mutters.

"Soul Split?" Stiyl turns to Index.

"It's an ancient technique that allows the user to split up into multiple bodies," Index begins explaining. "Bodies are made to house the caster's spirits in the same shape and form as the caster. But there are great dangers to this spell. The copies cannot use the same spells at the same time, doing so will cancel the Soul Split completely. Also, the more splits there are, the more unstable the copies become. The highest safe zone in record is about twelve."

"Our original can only split up to five, because our originator knows how to use six different kinds of magic. One for each mask. Guess what mine is." A burst of water gushes up from the ground and is twisted to fly into Index.

Stiyl picks up Index again and jumps out of the way. Blue summons up another water pillar behind him and launches it at the two.

Index mutters something and the pillar is redirected at the caster. Blue calls another pillar to block. At the end of the clash a blast of fire hit the masked man dead on. He stumbles back a bit but lands on his feet, a piece of paper drops from him but he doesn't notice it.

"Damn, that hurt more than I thought."

"You aren't burned," Stiyl points out. "Those robes must be a kind of defensive Walking Church. Judging by the damage you took I'd wager it only above average."

"And that Spell Intercept, guess I bit off more than I could chew."

"Stiyl, you should aim for his mask," Index tells him. "The Soul Split requires a common item between all copies. Those masks are the best candidates. If we break those masks, we can defeat the copies. Once they're all defeated, we can finish off the original caster."

"Ha! As if you can defeat all of us," Blue taunts.

"What are you doing?" a voice from above interrupts them. There was a flying bench floating down, on it sat another man in similar robes but a black mask. Right next to him was Touma, knocked out.

"Touma!" Index cries, but there was no response. Sityl stops her from moving forward.

"Heh," Blue smirks. "Looks like all our preparations are complete. We just have to wait until midnight. It took a while to set up the spell, and now it looks like your only way of stopping us is in our hands now. Who knows, he might even be useful to us after we're done with the city." Blue makes his way to Black's bench.

"Hold it!" Stiyl sends a blast of fire in their direction, but water and a dumpster suddenly blocks it.

Blue sits down right next to Black. "Bye!" Blue waves with two fingers as the bench floats upwards and away.

"Tch!" Stiyl calls off his flames. "Now what?"

"Hey," Index runs to where Blue was standing. "What's this?"

Stiyl follows as Index examines the paper.

"It's a map," Index sets it down on the ground for Stiyl to see. "There's a lot of marks on it, some of them were even crossed out and another mark is made right next to it."

"It's a magic circle!" Stiyl realizes. "One week's worth of set up and it looks like they're finished."

"There's a mark in the center, that might be where their base is!"

"I'm going to stop them, stay here."

"No way, I'm coming! We don't know what kind of magic they're trying to use yet, but it's something big and you're going to need me!"

Stiyl's phone rings suddenly. He quickly looks at the number calling and picks it up. "Hello?"

[Yo! Stiyl, I've got some useful information. Someone at Judgment discovered where the masked men might be hiding and are probably on the way over there right now.]

"We've already figured out where their base is. What is Judgment?"

[Volunteer Espers that patrol the city like a small police force. If you're going to go over there you better put on a disguise. There's a costume shop on the way you can stop by.]

"A costume shop? What do you want me to do there?"

[We can't have the Espers see you as you are. You should cover your face with something at least.]

"Alright, we'll take a look." Stiyl hangs up and turns to Index. "It seems that there are Espers on the way there as well. I might cause trouble if they see me so we're going to stop by costume shop and hope we can find something useful in there."

"Oh! Oh! Let me pick!"

"I'm going to regret this," Stiyl mumbles under his breath.

XXX

* * *

"Uiharu," Kuroko talks onto the cell phone. "Can you bring up all the information on the masked assaults again?" She grabs a rock and draws out a big circle on the ground.

"Yes," Kuroko hears Uiharu typing some keys as well as making a few mouse clicks. "What do you need to know?"

"Tell me where all the attacks took place."

Uiharu tells Kuroko the location of every incident in the past week involving the masked men. With each location Kuroko made a mark in the circle.

"Umm, Shirai?" Uiharu senses something wrong. "Did you find out anything?"

"All those attacks had no pattern in time or date and the locations appeared to be at random."

"Of course, that's why it's difficult to catch the ones behind all this."

"Even if we connect the dots, they make no real shape, but if I make a circle using the two farthest points for reference. Then what's at the center of the circle, just might be their base. Are you following me?"

"I am but," Uiharu starts to worry. "The chances of that being true-"

"Can you tell me what's at the center of that circle?" Kuroko interrupts forcibly.

"It's a block with four tall office buildings about 25 floors on average, one is under construction, two are in use and the last one is abandoned."

"Tell me where it is."

Uiharu relays the address, out of fear and concern. Kuroko repeats out loud for confirmation and teleports away.

Mikoto, who was hiding within hearing range the whole time, rushes out of her hiding spot towards the destination.

XXX

* * *

"…ther Touma…"

Touma can feel himself being shook and wakes up in an empty room. "Otohime?"

"Are you alright, Brother Touma?"

"What happened?"

"It seems we were knocked unconscious. Misaka reports based on the evidence."

"Misaka? You're here too? Huh?" Touma just now realized that his left hand and her right hand were handcuffed together, and the chain is unnaturally long enough to wrap around a small pipe in the wall. "What is this?"

"Misaka does not know. It appears to be a heavy insulator that is also very heat resistant, but the material is completely unknown. Misaka declares her observation."

"You've already tried breaking free?" Touma scratches his head. "What about the pipe?"

"It appears to be just an ordinary pipe, but rusted and weak. Misaka responds."

"If we pull hard enough, do you think it might break?"

"Misaka does not have the monstrous strength of Sister. Misaka tells the boy, a bit disappointed in the admission."

"Ah heh heh," Touma laughs nervously.

"I can help!" Otohime suddenly cries out. "I've wrestled Touma before!"

"You wrestled me while I was asleep!" Touma sighs. "But it's worth trying out at least. Misaka, can you use your power to weaken the pipe?"

Without responding, Misaka gathers electricity in her hand and fires a concentrated beam at where two pipes are connected. She fires another concentrated beam at the other end for a few seconds.

Touma, Misaka and Otohime grab hold of the pipe. "Three, two, one!" All three of them pull with their might. Touma puts a foot on the wall to increase his power. The sound of metal being bent and stretched can be heard but it didn't break as the three stopped to catch their breaths.

"I think it's working," Otohime encourages the group.

"It is," Touma sounds a bit tired. "Misaka can you weaken the pipe again?"

The three hostages repeated the routine a second time and broke the pipe off for sure.

"Haa haa phew," Touma wiped some sweat off of his head.

Misaka and Otohime slide the handcuff's chain off of the pipe, revealing it to be a quarter meter long.

"That's a lot of chain, what kind of handcuffs are these?"

"We need to get out of here Touma!" Otohime urges.

"Right," Touma gets up and they head out the door.

They find themselves near the top of an office building.

"Where the hell are we?"

"Where?" a voice echoes through the halls, a man in robes wearing a green mask approaches them. "Right in the palms of our hands."

XXX

* * *

Kuroko warps into the abandoned building. Surely enough, there's nothing worth noting in here. She warps a floor upwards, and again, and again, until she's almost halfway up the building. Where she encounters the man in a yellow mask. Stunned for a second, Kuroko teleports upwards hastily, only find him in front of her again, and again.

"Looks like I can't save Sissy unless I deal with you first."

"Looks like."

Kuroko warp kicks her opponent from behind. He turns around and his finger glows, Kuroko sees this and teleports before Yellow could fire the beam. The laser hits a wall and explodes.

Kuroko appears below Yellow and sweep kicks him off the ground, then appearing above him while in the air and heel kicks him downwards. Yellow hits the floor hard.

Smiling at her victory, Kuroko teleports a floor upwards again, only to find the yellow masked man suddenly standing straight up and in front of her.

"Wow, you're angry," Yellow states as he points a finger at her. "Perhaps I should enlighten you."

XXX

* * *

Stiyl and Index arrive at their destination. Index was carrying a strangely fat plastic bag.

"This is it!" Index yells out loud. "This is the building marked on the map."

"Alright, stay here." Sityl grabs the bag.

"What? I already told you I'm coming."

"This is as far as you go. With any luck we'll be able to stop them before they activate whatever spell it is they've set up. But we'll need you in top health in case they do manage to cast it."

"Alright but you better promise to rescue Touma!"

Stiyl jerks at this condition. On one hand he doesn't like Touma, on the other he likes Index. "That boy will surely come out of this in one piece." Stiyl heads into the building.

"That wasn't a promise!" Index yells at him. "Wait, he said 'we'. He really is going to save Touma!"

Not too far away, a certain someone overheard them, someone deeply indebted to Touma. It was time to repay that debt.

XXX

* * *

Just in front of the building Sityl takes out the thing they bought at the costume shop and put it on his head. While doing so he remembers the conversation they had in the store.

"_What? That?"_

"_Yeah, it's big enough to cover your whole head. No one will recognize you if you put this on."_

"_There's a lot of other masks that do that! Why pick that one?"_

"_This is the only one that fits your fire powers perfectly!" Index smiles._

"_Ugh, what am I going to say if someone sees me wearing that?" Stiyl sighs and facepalms._

"_Just call yourself Jack O'Lantern!"_

"The things I do for that girl." Sityl begins to run up the building wearing the pumpkin head.

XXX

* * *

On a building half as tall across the street, the lone hero stands on the rooftop and surveys the robed men's base.

With his green face mask, blue and white hero outfit and long red scarf blowing in the breeze, Gekota-man is ready to save the day!

(This is so embarrassing!) Mikoto cries inside the costume that she bought in the costume shop on the way here. (But I can't risk Kuroko seeing me while we're in there.)

Repelling the magnetic forces, Gekota-man jumps across the street and into about a third of the way up the robed men's building. Evil beware, justice has arrived!

XXX

* * *

**XXX**

**Author:** Jumping straight into the action!

Kuroko encounters Yellow, with the power of light. Touma and Misaka 10032 face Green.

Stiyl and Mikoto have also entered the building, wearing disguises. Who will their opponents be?

**Notes and stuff:**

The Gekota-man disguise is mostly based off of SNK's May Lee, just with the added Gekota mask on her face. Sityl's is just a pumpkin head.

The bit about the unstable personalities of the doppelganers is just an excuse just in case they come off a bit weird in future chapters.

I've seen a lot of places that heavily exaggerate Kuroko, I myself don't like her that much but I thought I'd try showing her as more calm and collected. Besides, I wanted to try writing teleportation fighting, sounds like fun.

**Changes from original plans:**

This is where the biggest changes come into effect. The original idea proved to be waaay too convoluted, complicated and messy, so it's been simplified, a LOT!

The masked men were originally going to be calling themselves PHANTOM. They'd be more of a terrorist group, demanding a lot of money for the return of "Mikoto Misaka" and the building that they take over has a giant screen to show them off. They also manage to bring a fully loaded shipping boat above the city and threaten to drop it into the building.

It's because of this publicity that gives Stiyl and Mikoto a better reason to wear disguises. PHANTOM were also going to kidnap Saten and Aogami as commentators for the publicly televised battles between them and the rescuers, just to give a bit of humour. And it's through this that Last Order finds out that a Sister had been kidnapped and begs/annoys Accelerator to save her.


	3. Battle

Author: I realized I haven't given a good description of the building. It's basically just a generic building though. Let's say... open floor surrounded by offices that have big windows. And the stairwell is quite large, with the center pit big enough for a person to fly through.

XXX

* * *

Battle

Recap:

At the top of a certain abandoned building, Touma and Misaka 10032 encounter Green.

A little over halfway up, Kuroko is already doing battle with Yellow.

About a quarter from the bottom, Gekota-man just broke into the building and is making his way upstairs.

At the very bottom, Stiyl enters the building and begins his ascent.

XXX

* * *

"Palms of your hands?" Touma shouts at the robed man with the green mask. "Who are you?"

Green stretches and yawns loudly. "Me? I'm just the guard. Please go back into the room and don't make a fuss until it's time."

"Huh?"

"It should be soon, it is pretty late. I don't want to work, just let me sleep until then. Go on, shoo." Green makes waves with his hands like he was directing little dogs.

An electric blast flies into Green's body, sending him flying back a bit.

"M-Misaka?" Touma stuttered.

"Our main objective is to escape, we do not have time for this. Misaka reminds the boy."

"Oww," Green suddenly groans in pain as he gets up. "You're really going to make me work? What a pain."

Misaka charges up another bolt as leaves fly in from behind the masked man. Electricity and plants clash and cancel each other out.

"Otohime," Touma calls his little cousin. "Get back in the room until we're done here."

"O-okay," Otohime goes back into the room.

"Alright you freak," Touma's voice takes a serious note. "You want to sleep? I can help you sleep."

"Wait-!" Misaka tries to warn him.

Toum runs forward, but a sudden tug on his left hand throws his balance off. He falls on his back while Misaka falls front first right next to him.

"Right, the handcuffs," Touma talks out loud nervously as he turns to face Misaka, who had involuntarily face floored thanks to him. "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

"I'm alright, Misaka says as she cannot believe how stupid a certain boy is and plans to get back at him sooner or later."

"What?" Touma was worried about the description she just gave but he had more things to worry about right now. Like a bunch of leaves and grass flying in their direction.

He instinctively grabs Misaka and rolls to the side, completely avoiding the attack. When he stopped, Misaka was at the bottom, and Touma was on his hands and knees above her. They were upside down of each other but the close proximity still made Misaka blush a little.

"Misaka? Are you alright?"

"Y-yes…" Misaka suddenly pushes him off and fires an electric blast at incoming greenery.

Both Touma and Misaka manage to get up before the next attack. Touma stands in front with his right hand stretched out. The leaves come into contact with it and suddenly scatter, Misaka shoots an electric bolt at Green, hitting him again and knocking him down.

"No fair," Green coughs as he gets up. "The ability to negate other abilities. That's cheap!"

"Let's go, Misaka."

The girl beside him nods in silent agreement.

They both charge at the same time. Green summons another leaf storm, Touma runs slightly ahead and uses his right hand to scatter the attack. The boy then uses both hands to grab Misaka's hands. With all of his strength he swings Misaka around. The girl kicks Green's head as hard as she could.

The robed man stumbles back, struggling to regain his balance. His vision blurred but he could just barely make out his two opponents coming at him.

Touma swings his right hand, aiming for Green's face. Green manages to dodge to the side, but he is gutted by Misaka's knee and bumbles back a bit. Touma tries an uppercut, again Green dodges it and runs into Misaka's left fist.

(He's avoiding my right hand, why? He must have some kind of protective barrier around him.)

Misaka blows her left knuckle and shakes it around.

"Misaka, you okay?"

"Yes. But using my fists is not Misaka's style. Misaka hides the pain in her hand."

"Then we need to finish this," Touma finds their opponent getting ready to fight again.

"This is getting to be too much trouble," Green sighs. "But I can't let you get out of here yet." Another storm of leaves appears from behind him. The leaves fly in their direction like a green wave.

Touma leads the charge, using his right hand to scatter the attack. Misaka follows up with an electric blast that is blocked by a small wall of leaves. Another green wave flies at the two, again Touma uses his right hand as they charge. Misaka then fires another electric bolt, not aiming at Green, but the lights above him.

Green is distracted by the lights exploding above him. Realizing his mistake, Green looks back to see Touma swing his right arm again. Green instinctively uses his arms to cover up his face. The masked man is sent stumbling back from the attack, but his outer robes is shred to pieces for no explainable reason (scientific anyway). Touma then grabs Misaka's waist and flips her upwards, her feet coming into contact with Green's face. Green stumbles, Touma and Misaka punch his face at the same time.

Green lands on his back hard and in terrible pain. "I knew it was too much trouble…" His mask cracks down the center vertically.

"Now," Touma's voice rings through the floor. "Are you going to talk?"

"Nope, too much of a pain to do so," the voice coming out of the mask sounded different, a mixture of the original voice they heard, and the voice of a young woman. The mask cracks even more. Green takes out a key and slides it to them. "Here, this is for the handcuffs."

"You're not even going to show your face?" Touma asks as Misaka takes the keys and frees them from the handcuffs.

"You've already seen my face," the man(?) replies. "Besides, I'm just an illusion that you shattered. Goodbye." Green puts a hand over his(?) mask as it breaks apart. Green is suddenly glowing in a bright light and vanishes into the air.

Touma is still stunned at the robed stranger's disappearance.

"There will be more. Misaka warns as she gathers information from the Misaka Network."

"More?"

"The network has recorded three other individuals in the city similar to the one we fought, all using different abilities. Misaka explains the danger. We must escape this area as soon as possible, preferably before we are forced to fight against any more opponents. Our safety, especially that young girl's, is our primary objective. Misaka summarizes the situation to the boy."

"You're right," Touma smiles. "Otohime!"

"I'm here, Brother Touma!" Otohime rushes out and meets up with them.

"Stay close to me," Touma tells her.

"Using the elevator is too risky especially in enemy territory. We should take the stairs. Misaka suggests."

XXX

* * *

Kuroko warp kicks Yellow in the gut, a drop kick to the back, a spin kick to the side and a flying jump kick to the chest. Yellow falls to the ground again. Kuroko pants heavily, no matter how much damage she deals to this guy he keeps getting back up, her legs are hurting. The girl's taken on punks many times her size before, even larger than Yellow, but none of them withstood this much damage.

(No, I'm not giving up until I rescue Sissy!)

Yellow gets up again and readies his finger laser. Kuroko warps before the beam is fired. She appears behind the man and puts a palm on his back. Yellow suddenly disappears, but only for a moment. He reappears in front of Kuroko again.

"Of course that wouldn't work," Kuroko mumbles. "I should have restocked."

"Looks like you're worn out enough," Yellow suddenly speaks. He raises his arms and a cluster of light orbs form all around him. "Can you see the light?" He raises a finger that begins to glow, Kuroko dodges the attack before it fires.

"I can't get near him with those balls in the way," Kuroko observes. "I need something to use." But inside this abandoned building, theirs is virtually nothing that can be useful.

Kuroko teleports to the far wall and places a hand on a window. Wind rushes into the building suddenly.

"Wha-?" Before he could finish the question, one of his orbs exploded behind him. Shards of glass scatter about, hitting him and his protective orbs.

Kuroko watches as the masked man is surrounded by his own explosions.

The smoke begins to clear, with Yellow face down on the ground. Kuroko stays firm, this isn't the first time he's been knocked down. Her fears are confirmed when he gets up.

"I see," Yellow's voice takes on a more menacing tone. "If you cannot see the light…" Yellow warps in front of Kuroko. "… Then I'll shove it down your throat!" Yellow raises an arm above his head, creates a large rob and swings down.

Kuroko warps away before the attack connects, an explosion rocks the floor they're in.

Kuroko jump kicks Yellow's back. He stumbles forward but manages to turn around and fire an orb of light. The girl warps past it and jumps off the wall to kick his head. Yellow grabs her leg and swings down.

The girl is sent downwards, outside of the building, (He teleported us outside?).

Yellow, who was hovering on light discs, is suddenly hit from behind by the falling girl's body, damaging both of them. Yellow creates more discs to stand on and turns around. Kuroko is about to perform a heel drop on his head. Yellow blocks it with his arms crossed.

(He blocked it again,) Kuroko mentally notes. (Is he wearing some kind of armor under all those robes? Then the head must be his weak spot!)

Yellow's hands create two orbs that he fires at her. Kuroko warps and does a flying kick to his chest. Instead of stumbling, Yellow grabs her leg and swings her around. Kuroko's body is tossed into a door, they were inside the building again.

"Did you know?" Yellow raises his arms and creates a cluster of orbs. "Light bounces!" The orbs scatter violently across the floor, bouncing off everything. Except Kuroko, the balls explode on contact.

(I can't teleport like this, it's too chaotic!) Kuroko tries to defend herself from the onslaught of attacks from all directions. She's hit by a powerful beam attack from Yellow himself and flies to the floor while still being pounded by some bouncing orbs.

"Now, your salvation will shine," Yellow gathers light energy in between his hands as Kuroko stands up weakly. A large orb of light glows and grows. "Will you pray your last words before I send you to heaven's gate?"

"Hold the door," Kuroko touches a nearby door and warps it into the sphere.

The sphere explodes instantly with no time for Yellow to react. Kuroko shields herself from the wind blast and flying dust, but is sent flying back into a wall. The entire floor was covered in a grey cloud. Kuroko coughs, her body in pain.

"I can't teleport in this condition," Kuroko notes to herself. (No, I can't think like that. I have to save Sissy!)

Kuroko struggles to get up, her body wrecked from damage, her legs weakened from overuse. But she used all her will power to stand up. When the smoke clears, she sees the robed man on the ground, a slight cracking sound can be heard until a loud breaking sound cackles through the air. Yellow's body is engulfed in a bright light.

"What now?" Kuroko wonders as she sees Yellow suddenly vanish before her. Stunned for a few seconds, she scans all around her, fearing his reappearance. He didn't come. She waited a little longer, on edge. But still the man in the yellow mask did not appear. "A side effect of his ability? No time to worry about that." Kuroko wills herself forward towards the stairs.

XXX

* * *

Stiyl climbs a few flights of stairs when a powerful gust of wind blowing downwards stops him. The pressure forces him to dive at the nearest floor and await the attacker.

A robed man in a White mask floats down on a mini twister. "Sorry, we're not hiring."

"But I still have a few questions!" Stiyl launches a large stream of fire at White.

White stops his mini twister and drops to the ground, ducking the flames. White shoots a jet of air at the pumpkin head. Stiyl dives sideways. Both Stiyl and White launch their respective powers at the same time, the powers collide between them and cancel each other out.

"Looks like we're even, this could be fun," White sounds creepily gleeful as winds gather around his hand.

Stiyl can see the winds are churning strangely at White's hand. Like they're spinning around something invisible that he's holding. The masked man raises his arm and swings down. Something invisible hits the ground, denting it and creating a powerful wind gust. Stiyl fired a powerful burst of flame to counter it.

White runs through the clashing powers with the wind "thing". The masked man takes a swing and Stiyl narrowly avoid it, but a part of his robes weren't lucky as it was ripped apart.

"Some kind of invisible sword?" Stiyl mutters. He begins to chant with one hand out, flames burst all around him and forms a sword on his hand.

"Cool! Now we can really have some fun!" White charges forward.

Stiyl blocks the first attack, but is immediately pounded by a powerful wind force that knocks him back a couple steps. Stiyl blocks another attack with the same effect. White charges again, swinging his wind sword. Stiyl holds his ground and uses his free hand to blast White point blank in the chest. White lands on his back some distance away.

"Ahahahaa!" White laughs as he uses his wind to get up without bending. "Now that's more like it! Come on! Let's enjoy this!"

"You're insane!"

"Who cares!" White shoots a blast of wind.

Stiyl counters with a blast of fire. The masked man runs right through the clash again. Stiyl blocks the attack, readying to fire a flame blast. White uses wind under his feet to propel himself into the air above Stiyl. Fire circles around Stiyl's feet and they are both engulfed in a red pillar.

White is blasted away and into a wall. "More… More, more, more, more, more!" White charges full throttle.

Stiyl shoots several fire balls onto him, they are deflected by wind blasts. The masked man thrusts, Stiyl blocks and the powerful wind blows him off his feet. He never touches the ground, there was a mini twister below him that kept him afloat.

"Come on fire man! Get out of this one!" White wind jumps up to him.

Stiyl fires a blast of flame downwards, negating the mini twister and avoiding White's wind slash. Stiyl performs another chant for his other hand, creating a flame whip. The fire magician swings the whip in the masked man's direction. White slashes at it, blowing away the part near him. Stiyl swings again, with the same results.

"You can do better than that, right?" White charges forward again.

(This guy just doesn't care!) Stiyl fires off multiple fireballs that are blocked by wind.

White is within attacking distance and readies his sword. Stiyl readies to counter. The masked man suddenly bursts to the side using his wind and Stiyl only strikes the floor. The masked man's sudden movement surprises Stiyl, but not enough to catch him off guard. The magician blocks White's side attack just in time, and feels the wind pressure pushing him from the impact.

Stumbling back, Stiyl sees White charging forward again. The flame wielder swings his whip at the ground just in front him, a wall of fire erupts between the two. But White just runs right through it, he didn't even bother blowing the wall away. Stiyl raises his non sword hand and from it he fires a continuous stream of flames.

White thrusts his wind sword into the fire, and they clash in between. "Ahahaha! Yes! YES! The ultimate thrill!" White uses wind on his feet to push himself forward. "It's no fun dying a boring death! We should all go out with a bang!"

"Ugnh!" Stiyl increases his output, he's forced to step back as the masked man forces through. "If you want to die so badly, go do it yourself!" The fire magician readies his sword. He stops the stream of flame and readies to clash with the masked man.

Stiyl is sent flying into a wall while a powerful wind pressure pushes him into it so hard it makes a crater. The wind stops and he crashes onto the ground.

He can hear the footsteps of the masked man coming closer. Recovering his stamina, he struggles to get up. Stiyl manages to get up to one knee when he sees the whirling wind being pointed at him.

"Too bad, you get to enjoy it first."

Stiyl snaps his fingers. A card he managed to plant on White's sword arm ignites, leaving his whole body wide open to attack. Stiyl jumps and grabs White's head.

"When you reform your original self, remember the feeling of this hellfire," Stiyl unleashes a powerful blast. White's body glows brightly then vanishes completely.

Stiyl takes his time to take off the pumpkin head to change his cigarette. After a couple puffs, he puts it back on and heads for the stairs.

XXX

* * *

Black sits on the bench, the same one that he brought Kamijou Touma on, at the rooftop of their base. Randomly, there's a pair of shipping containers up there too. The masked man probably brought them due to the lack of useful magnetic objects up here.

He hears a pair of footsteps land behind him. He knows that the others have already begun their battles, but no one had arrived to his location, not until this intruder appeared. Without getting up he turns his head to the sound.

"A surprise intruder?" Black muttered under his mask. "You must have some kind of power to get up here." He gets up to face the intruder, magnetically sliding the bench away. "But, if your intention is to fight me, then I will oblige." The shipping containers break apart and the pieces float menacingly behind him.

The intruder showed no signs of weakness or fear, just determination. Because this person knows that Touma would do the same.

XXX

* * *

Author: Wow, I spent quite a bit of time on the battles, but reading them back, they seemed quite short. And I'm sure I wanted the masked men stronger than that. That's 3 of the 5 masked men down, how will the battles against the other 2 go? Who is that intruder?

**Changes from original idea:**

Remember that shipping boat that I originally had planned hovering above the building? Accelerator was supposed to fight the Black mask there. Also, near the end of the fight, the Black mask would turn the boat into the shape of a mecha to try fighting Accelerator. But because of several changes before hand, Accelerator doesn't even know about the masked men, so he's not showing up. Instead I had to think up other possible characters to take on Black, two of which were Sasha (investigating the time magic) and Kaori (came with Stiyl).

Originally, Yellow was going to be a lot more broken and win his fight against Kuroko (illusions, solid light copies, lightspeed movement instead of light teleportation and several other light based crazyass powers). White would've given Stiyl a lot more trouble, enough to summon Innocentius, actually the original idea was more of blasting/shooting back and forth constantly, but I turned it into a sword fight XD. Then both Stiyl and Gekota-man would arrive to where Yellow is at the same time (somehow) and battle Yellow together, eventually beating him. The battle against Green pretty much remained the same, only change from the original idea was that I didn't have Touma use the pipe that they broke off.

I kinda needed Kuroko in decent enough health, as well as to keep her away from Gekota-man. And I didn't want to downplay her rescue attempt, it seemed wrong to do so.


	4. Determination

Determination

Previously:

Near the top of the building, Touma and Misaka 10032 defeats the Green mask. They are now heading down the stairs with Otohime.

At least halfway up, Kuroko defeated the Yellow mask. Though she is weakened and cannot teleport, she heads up the stairs to rescue her precious Sissy.

Near the bottom, Stiyl defeated the White mask. He now races upwards to stop whatever the masked men were plotting.

On the rooftop the Black mask is met with a surprising visitor. He readies for battle.

XXX

* * *

(We join our hero, Gekota-man, as he makes his way up the elevator shaft of the mysterious robed men's dastardly building. And- Why the heck am I narrating?) Mikoto shakes her head. (Ugh, this outfit is contagious. I need to save that idiot and my sister soon, from both those weirdoes and Kuroko!)

Mikoto looks up to see the elevator blocking her way. (Looks like it's my stop.) She hops on the doorway just underneath it and opens the doors with her electricity and magnetism.

"What's with that ridiculous outfit?" a voice surprises her as she walks into the floor.

Mikoto turns to face a man in robes wearing a blue mask. (Oh no! How do I answer? Kuroko could teleport in here at any moment!)

"Hello?"

"I…" Mikoto coughs and readies her throat. "I am a hero of justice! The emissary of good, Gekota-man!" Mikoto tries to pose like a Power Ranger. "Servants of the dark power!" She points at Blue. "Return to whence you came!"

…

Mikoto could swear she's hearing crickets chirping as she stands frozen out of embarrassment. (I can't believe I just did that!) She cries internally.

"Alright, Creepy Frog-man-"

"Creepy Frog!?" Mikoto is angered and starts stomping. "It's Gekota! Ge-Ko-Ta! Urgh! What is it with you people?"

"Hey, I'm not the one dressed in the funny costume."

"But you're still dressed funny!"

…

"Know what?" Blue readies himself. "Let's just get this over with."

"My thoughts exactly," Mikoto gathers some electricity in her hand and fires them at Blue.

A thick wall of water appears out of nowhere and in front of Blue to block the attack.

"Okay, what kind of frog uses electricity?" Blue asks as he pushes the wall towards her.

Mikoto runs forward and jumps above the moving wall of water. She quickly throws an electric blast his way. Another wall of water blocks it, Blue pushes this wall as well. The girl magnetically grabs a couple doors, ripping them off the walls and uses them to block the wave.

"This is getting nowhere," Blue calls for several large bucket's worth of water around him. They begin twirling and spinning into the shape of drills.

Mikoto throws the doors forward just as Blue shoots the water drills. The doors only manage to block half of the drills before completely breaking apart, forcing Mikoto to dodge the rest.

"Is that all you got, Hero?" Blue walks forward slowly. "I was expecting more from you." The masked man begins picking up the pace gradually. "If you truly intend to save all four of them." Water starts to gather in two places behind him. "Then you're going to have to do a lot better than that!" He charges forward full speed.

(Four? Did they take Kuroko too?) Mikoto shoots another beam of electricity.

Blue fires a pillar of water. The water eats the electricity and blasts Mikoto into an office, cracking a giant window.

"This is it!" Blue shoots another pillar of water.

Mikoto magnetically grabs the door and places it between her and the incoming water. The door shatters instantly as the wave gushes through. Mikoto is pushed so hard against the window that it shatters. The girl falls to certain death.

"Huh," Blue stands at the window, surprised. "That was way too easy." Blue was hit by a powerful electric bolt from the outside and knocked down. "She's still alive?!" Blue gets up suddenly. "Where?" Blue looks out the window again, all he can really see is the building under construction right next door. There was nothing downwards, upwards or sideways on their building's wall itself. The girl is hiding somehow.

(That was a strong blast,) Mikoto thought to herself as she hides behind a pile of I-beams a couple floors down, and holding her costume's long scarf. (How can he get up so easily? Not even Kuroko recovers that fast.) Mikoto peeks out to do a quick survey. She finds the masked man standing outside of the window, standing on a floating puddle of water!

(Just what the hell is with this guy? He's no ordinary water user.) Mikoto ponders a strategy. (And he knows how to counter electric attacks. As long as he doesn't touch the water himself, I can't electrocute him through it. Iron sand won't work on him either, the water will just mess it up. My only option is to hit him with magnetic objects.

I just need a way to weaken his defenses, I'm certain he's able to change the thickness of that wall of his as well as expand it all around to cover him completely. I can either outsmart him or try to overpower him.)

"This is getting boring Hero," Blue calls out. "Come on, do something else!"

As if granting his wish, he's suddenly surrounded by clouds of black sand. Blue quickly envelops himself inside a hollow yet thick sphere of water. An electric bolt fires through the sand and hits the sphere, without piercing through or dealing any damage. Blue realizes that he's effectively blind in the middle of the sand cloud. He stretches out his water shield to absorb the sand around him and just drops the water along with the sand inside it to the ground.

"I was hoping that you'd do something better," Blue sighed out loud.

"How about this?"

Blue followed the origin of the voice. He finds Gekota-man in a pose as if he was lifting something big and heavy, it was the I-beam floating nearby through magnetism.

"Whoa, didn't see that coming."

Mimicking a javelin toss, Mikoto 'throws' the I-beam at Blue. The masked man blasts a column of water at it to stop the attack. The I-beam breaks through the water and hits Blue squarely in the chest. The damage was greatly reduced but it still hurt like hell. The I-beam falls to the ground once it was done flying, Blue drops to one knee on his floating puddle.

"Now I really didn't see that coming, argh," Blue tries to maintain his composure, he was in pain alright yet he still manages to stand.

"There's no way any normal human can take that hit and still stand up so easily," Mikoto mutters in surprise.

"I can take a lot more than you can dish out, little girl."

"We'll see about that!" Mikoto magnetically grabs another I-beam. She twirls her finger around as if instructing it to spin. The I-beam starts to spin faster and faster. Mikoto waves her arm in a heavy arc forward, the spinning beam flies towards the masked man.

Without moving the masked man raises two fingers. A very thin stream of water gushes upwards in front of him from the fingers, a wave of his hand and the stream connects with the beam. The beam is cut, the two halves fly harmlessly into the office building, completely missing the target.

"What?"

"Water cuts diamonds," Blue creates a water pathway in front of himself and runs along it. His hands stick out only the pointer and middle fingers together, a thin stream of water erupts from both of them.

Mikoto grabs another I-beam and tosses it at him. That beam was also cut cleanly and completely missed the target. Blue closes in rapidly, Mikoto still doesn't know the maximum effective range of the attack. She jumps away as Blue swings one hand. The girl attaches herself to a vertical steel frame piece.

Blue runs over to below where she's standing and slashes the pillar. Mikoto jumps off of it, aiming for another beam to land on. A powerful geyser hits her legs causing her to spin uncontrollably. Her torso hits the beam knocking the wind out of her, the mask flies off of her face and her body falls to the same floor as the masked man.

Mikoto gets up to her arms and knees, holding her chest and coughs loudly. She gasps hard, trying to regain the wind she lost. She can hear the masked man walking ever closer, with the sound of high pressure water tearing through the concrete.

"Looks like this is the end," Blue looms over her while she's still recovering from the impact. "Any last words?"

Mikoto coughs and catches her voice, "Wheelbarrow…"

"Wheel what?"

Mikoto swings her free arm, Blue hears something move from the side. Just before he could turn, a wheelbarrow hits him into a wall. Blue blasts the wheelbarrow away with water. Mikoto lands gracefully in front of him and twirls.

"GE-KO KIIIIICK!" Mikoto uses magnetic forces to increase her power and lands a powerful kick to Blue's head.

The masked man flies a bit, stumbles on the floor and hits another wall. His mask cracks greatly.

The man coughs and sits himself up against the wall, "Heh, ahahaha!" the original voice is there, but it sounded mixed with another, more feminine voice. "I think you've been wearing that costume for too long! Ahahaha!"

Mikoto's face flushes with embarrassment, "Sh-shut up!"

"What? Thought you'd try to be a vigilante superhero but didn't like any of the bat or spider costumes?"

"No," Mikoto answers immediately as she walks over to get her mask. "Those are gross. A-anyway, I'm going to rescue your hostages. You'd better stay here until you're arrested."

"I won't get arrested," Blue tells her flatly as the mask breaks apart completely and the bottom half falls while the top half continues to cover the face. "But tell me something, if the only way to save the lives of many, was to sacrifice the life of the one you care for the most, would you be able to do it?" Now there was only one voice, that of a woman.

"What?" Mikoto's mind suddenly remembers that horrible nightmare she had last night. Touma had saved a lot of people, but she…

She had to…

Kill him…

"What are you talking about? What do you know?"

Blue's body is surrounded by a mysterious light. Mikoto could just barely make out a strange smile just before the light and body vanishes.

The man(?)'s words has shaken Mikoto to the core. She beings to question if it's worth rescuing them.

Mikoto slaps her cheeks. (No, I can't think like that. I have to rescue them. I will rescue them. That guy was just trying to psyche me out, that's it. I can't let it get to me.) Mikoto puts the Gekota mask back on her face, jumps back into the building through the broken window and heads for the stairs.

XXX

* * *

On the rooftop, the black masked man faces the unknown intruder. Several broken pieces of shipping containers float behind and around him, ready to be used as flying projectiles.

"I have no name," the man in the black mask tells the intruder. "But, if you need to call me anything, do it by the color of my mask, Black. Now, before I kill you, tell me yours, so that I can tell them who died."

"… Hyouka…" the shy girl answers. "Hyouka Kazakiri."

"Very well," Black raises an arm. "Now die." The masked man waves his arm and a couple pieces of shipping containers fly towards Hyouka.

The girl leaps above the pieces and begins running towards the man. Black raises an arm to stop the flying pieces, then they fly back.

"So, this wasn't a random occurrence," Black waves his other arm and another piece from behind him to fly forward. "You're here for a reason."

Hyouka stops and stares at the incoming piece. She turns around and sees the two she dodged earlier. She hastily jumps to the side and the three pieces collide with each other. Hyouka regains her balance and charges once again. Even closer now, she winds up an arm to attack.

"Clearly, it is a strong reason," Black places a piece between himself and his opponent. It gets dented really hard. "You don't look like you've ever been in a fight." Black sees Hyouka jumping over that wall and try for a two footed dive kick. "Much less even wanting to get into one." The man places the first three pieces he threw and layered them in her path. They get a crater from the impact. Hyouka jumps back and lands on the rooftop. "Yet you are here. Someone with the looks more suited for a damsel in distress, is here, fighting me. You don't look insane, in fact, you look like you want to fight me, even though I could kill you very easily." Black claps his hands and two pieces suddenly flatten Hyouka.

"…" The masked man knows that it wasn't over. The pieces had huge dents in them, ones that look like it could've been made if the girl has stretched her arms out. However hollow it is in there, there's definitely enough space to fit a person.

A loud bang is heard, one of the pieces flies and lands near the edge of the rooftop, the other piece merely falls down as the girl stands without any visible damage on her.

"Why?"

"I'm here," Hyouka begins her declaration. "To save a friend!"

"'To save a friend'?" Black launches a couple more pieces. "How foolish, that answer is too weak, too nonsensical, too cliche." The masked man continues his magnetic assault as Hyouka keeps dodging and charging. "You think that mere friendship would push someone like you this far? You truly believe that this 'friendship' is enough to defeat someone like me?" Hyouka closes the distance again, Black places another piece between them and again this is dented hard. Unlike before though, Hyouka reaches under and lifts it so hard it flies upwards.

Black calls a piece to him and he hops onto it while magnetically throwing, catching, re-throwing the other pieces. "There is definitely something more. What is it? Do you want to prove your worth instead of being some useless side character? Are you indebted to your friend for some reason, like a rescue or a reason to live?" Black hovers on his piece, every time Hyouka gets close, he hovers away easily. "Whatever it may be, you won't last long enough to carry it out."

"Does every villain he fights talk this much?" Hyouka jumps back to avoid an attack.

"…" Black has no response. "Just die." He calls one of the longer pieces right next to him and he rolls it up. Hyouka is too busy avoiding the other pieces to notice until it appears right above her. Black drops his arm and the rolled up piece is hammered down through the rooftop.

Hyouka manages to jump out of the way in time to avoid it. But it was a trap, she sees another attack flying at her and can only attempt to block it by crossing her arms. It hits her at a slight angle, taking her off her feet and pushing her off the rooftop. She sees the neighboring building coming up fast behind her, the plate suddenly feels like the magnetic push it had suddenly stops, letting gravity take over. Hyouka fumbles to position herself to kick off the metal piece. Setting her eyes on the opposite building, she times herself.

Hyouka kicks off as hard as she could. She flies through a big window and crashes into someone's desk, barely missing the plastic chair on wheels. The girl checks herself, there's several parts of her form that's been cracked, some parts broken off. However those had completely healed in mere seconds.

Black floats down on his floating platform just outside the window. "You're a survivor, I'll give you that."

"You might be right though," Hyouka starts.

"Hmm?"

"I've been saved by my friends many times. May be I do feel indebted to them because of that, but there is more. They know what I am, yet they still call me their friend! It's because of them that I can enjoy my existence, that is something I can never pay back."

"…" Black stays silent as his floating weapons begin to appear around him. "You're willing to bet your existence against me?"

"I wouldn't want to exist without them."

"Then so be it," Black concludes. "Put your whole being against my power!"

Hyouka grabs the plastic chair and throws it at the masked man. Black quickly places a metal wall between him and the flying chair. The chairs bounces off easily enough but another attack hits right at the top portion of the metal piece and it spins from the impact.

The masked man sees Hyouka, both feet having impacted the wall, flowing with the spin, readying another jump. The wall is nearly completely flipped but Hyouka quickly propels herself forward to lands on the same platform that the man is standing on. Before he could react, she tackles him with all her superhuman strength and flies him into his base's building wall. The floating metal pieces drop as the building wall explodes.

XXX

* * *

Author: Mostly a continuation from the previous chapter. The last two masked men have now had their battles, but the fight with Black is not over yet. Pretty soon everyone is going to meet with each other, what will happen then?

This is where the story just continues with the changes from the original idea. Hell of a lot simpler than what I originally had.


	5. Tempus

Tempus951

Review:

Four of the five Soul Split doppelgangers have been defeated. Touma, Misaka 10032 and Otohime are making their way down the stairs from about 3/4 up the building, while Kuroko, Mikoto and Stiyl climb from over 2/3 way, 1/2 way and 1/3 way up respectively.

Outside, Hyouka does battle with the final mask. Once all five are defeated, the original will reform.

Who is this time travelling sorcerer? Why is he here? Just how powerful is he?

XXX

* * *

Touma, Misaka 10032 and Otohime heard a very loud crashing noise from above. They look up to see some kind of rolled up steel falling down, bouncing around erratically as it hits the stairs. It didn't take long for it to make it near them. Misaka shoves Touma hard and grabs Otohime closely.

XXX

* * *

"What was that?" Gekota-man looks up the center of the stairway and sees a rolled up piece of steel crash down on the stairway above. "I need to hurry." The hero jumps on the railing and uses magnetically enhanced jumps to ascend faster.

XXX

* * *

"A battle upstairs?" Stiyl looks up the stairway and sees something crash into the stairs far above him. "Is it that guy?" Stiyl then sees someone in costume hop on the railings and superhumanly jump upwards. "Guess there's no time to run." The fire mage looks down the center of the stairwell, it's quite wide. Stiyl leaps over the railing and down into the center. He unleashes blasts of flames from his feet and his hands. His descent slows to a stop and he begins to fly upwards.

XXX

* * *

"SISSY!"

Touma's head rang hard as he heard a panicked voice. He hit the wall pretty hard after Misaka had pushed him.

"Sissy hang on!"

"Shirai?" The first person Touma could make out was a friend of the original Misaka, the teleporter Shirai Kuroko. She was kneeling on the ground.

"You! How are you alright?"

Touma finally sees who she kneeling next to, "Misaka! Otohime!" Misaka's head was bleeding and there's a wound on her side that's bleeding through her uniform, there's no response from her. Otohime doesn't look as badly hurt but she's not responding, she's out cold.

"You know that little girl?"

"She's my cousin, Misaka protected her…" Touma crawls over to them. "Shirai, you need to get them to a hospital."

"I-I can't, I just beat some guy with this weird mask but I took too much damage to teleport."

"Listen, Misaka needs you right now. She protected my cousin too and they both need medical help as soon as possible. So don't let her down."

"Sissy needs me," Kuroko takes deep breathes to calm herself down. "Alright." Kuroko teleports behind Touma, then back next to Misaka 10032 and Otohime. "I'll be taking Sissy and your cousin to hospital."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Touma stands and looks up.

"You're going to get whoever did this aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well make sure to save a couple hits for me and Sissy! And make them hurt! If you don't, I'll definitely kill you!" Kuroko yells at him before teleporting away with the two girls.

"Alright," Touma looks around and sees the pillar of steel just sticking out of the wall. He ducks under it and starts climbing the stairs. "Whoever did this is going to seriously-"

The wall explodes in front of him, he stops in surprise as another man in robes but a black mask, and Hyouka Kazakiri, fly through. Hyouka drops and rolls as the man hits the opposite wall. The girl gets up as fast as she can and rushed the man in robes.

"HAAA!" With all her strength Hyouka punches Black in the face, the wall and her arm shatters from the impact. The masked man drops to his knees then his face hits the floor, his body glows for a moment then vanishes instantly. Hyouka's arm quickly reforms itself as the girl pants heavily.

"Ka… Kazakiri?"

"Huh?" Hyouka turns around to see a very surprised Touma.

A bit of silence passes by between them.

"You... didn't need rescuing, Kamijou?"

"Huh?"

"Oh," Hyouka seemed suddenly down. "I was hoping to repay you while looking cool in front of Index."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but wait," Touma's ears had caught something. "Did you say Index?"

"She's just outside," Hyouka answered.

"Why is she here? Tch," Touma couldn't believe it. "Kazakiri, can you stay with her? There's more of these guys out there. Index may be in danger."

"Ah! I didn't think of that."

"Hurry!"

"Alright!" Hyouka jumps out the hole in the wall to meet with her friend.

"Misaka said that there were three others besides the one we defeated. Kazakiri defeated one and if what Shirai says is true then she also defeated one. That means there's one more somewhere."

Just as Touma was thinking about what to do next, Gekota-man lands right next to him.

(GACK! It's him!)

"Huh?" Touma gives Gekota-man a funny look. "What's with that ridiculous outfit?"

"Ridiculous outfit?" the hero starts posing. "I am an ally of justice! Gekota-man!"

Silence.

Touma gives a nervous point. "Bug zapper? Is that you?"

Gekota-man nervously stays in pose and doesn't answer. (Is this disguise really that easy to see through?)

"Look, if you're worried about your sister and Shirai. They're already gone."

"What?" the hero loosens up and stands normally.

"That… whatever that is was falling down from the rooftop. Your sister got hurt badly, Shirai showed up and took her to a hospital."

"I see," the hero sighs. "That's good to hear. Kuroko won't do anything weird unless I'm in good health."

"So it is you bug zapper."

"Ack!" Busted. "Huh? Is it suddenly getting warmer in here?"

Some kind of pumpkin headed rocket jets up from the center of the stairwell and softly lands right next to them.

"Wha-guh?" Mikoto pointed at the pumpkin headed man in a cloak.

"Hmm?" Stiyl notices the strange hero costume pointing at him and calmly points a finger back.

"What's with that ridiculous outfit?" they asked each other. "Are you one of those masked men?"

Stiyl ignites fire in his hand as Mikoto charges up.

"Haaah, just my luck," Touma walks in between the two of them. "Calm down you two. You're not enemies."

"You know who this is?" Mikoto asks, stopping her lightning.

"I have an idea," Touma answers as he looks at Stiyl. "You came here with Index, right?"

Sityl disperses his fire, "Yes, Touma Kamijou. It really pains me to say it, but she asked me to save you."

"Index? That mini-nun?"

Touma sighs again, "I'd ask for an explanation but…" Touma turns to Gekota-man briefly then turns back. "There's complications."

"Then I'll just tell you what we need to do," the pumpkin head breathes out smoke. "There are five masked men in this building. We need to first defeat those five before their… boss appears."

"There's actually five? Me and Misaka's Sister already defeated one," Touma informs. "Shirai said she fought with another."

"Kuroko did?" Mikoto asks, but realizes that if Kuroko's well enough to teleport than she's in good condition. "That's two, I beat one on my way up here."

"And I also defeated one," Stiyl informs. "That only makes four."

"Five actually," Touma says pointing to the holes in the walls. "Hyouka Kazakiri defeated the last one."

"Who's Hyouka?" Mikoto asks.

"She's a friend of Index's."

"Huh?" Stiyl scowls.

"Don't worry, she's a good person, she's really nice. I told her to go back and check on Index."

Stiyl checks the holes in the walls again, then looks back at Touma, smoke breathing out of the pumpkin mask menacingly.

"Ahehehe…" Touma nervously laughs.

"So, what now?" Mikoto asks. "You said there was a boss, right… Sorry, I didn't get your name."

Stiyl stayed silent for a moment, trying to remember Index's words, _"Just call yourself Jack O'Lantern!"_

"Jack," Stiyl says.

"Jack?" Both Mikoto and Touma ask.

"Jack O'Lantern," Stiyl tried his best to sound cool and composed, but he was internally embarrassed. "And you are?"

"Bug Zapper," Touma answers.

"Hey! Don't answer for me!" Mikoto yells. (What do I do? Should I tell this guy my real name? It seems that idiot and that mini-nun knows him. But why is he dressed all funny? Oh no, could it be that the more I'm around this doofus the weirder I become? Please no, not that! I'm already wearing this costume, I don't want to sink any further.) "My name is-"

"Should we get back to Index?"

"I don't see any other choice."

"Don't ignore me!" Mikoto yells through the mask.

"Hey, bug zapper, do you think you can use that to bring us down?" Touma points at the rolled up piece of steel sticking out of the wall.

"Use that how?"

"It's simple, you just have to take it out through the hole there, unroll it, we step on it and you can just let us down. It's faster than an elevator."

"Falling is also faster than an elevator," Mikoto sighs, but does it anyway.

XXX

* * *

"Um… hello Index."

"Huh? Hyouka!" Index jumps to hug her friend. "You're back early!"

"I really wanted to see you again."

Index and Hyouka giggle a little.

"Wait, now's not the time for this! Touma's in trouble!" Index panics.

"He seemed just fine to me," Hyouka tells her.

"What do you mean 'he seemed just fine'?"

"I-I overheard you and your friend talking about rescuing him," Hyouka nervously tells her. "S-so I thought I'd try doing that too, maybe I could impress him."

"Impress… Touma…?" Index expresses shock at Hyouka's words. Index is suddenly covered in a depressing aura with her head hung and leaning against a wall. "No, not you too Hyouka. Even my best friend was charmed by him!" Index screams into the sky. "Huh?"

Index notices a large metal platform falling down next to the building at great speed. It slows down at bit just before touching the ground. On it stood Touma, Jack O'Lantern and Gekota-man.

"Touma!" Index started to cheerily meet up with him but then remembered what Hyouka said. Her mood changed quickly.

"I-Index?" Touma started to get nervous. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Index begins to fume. "You didn't come home in time, there's no food at your place, there's something going on with these time travelling masked freaks, I find out that you've been kidnapped, and just now I learned that my best friend has a crush on you!" Index breathes heavily as she catches her breath, Hyouka blushes meekly.

"Um… Sorry? Wait, time travelling? And what was that last part?"

Index gets a malicious glare in her eyes, "Toouumaa!" Index rushes in with the intent to bite him.

Touma prepares for the incoming attack, but nothing came. Index stopped suddenly and is looking around.

"Huh?"

"A barrier has been raised," Index starts. "One kilometer in radius centered around this area, fifty kilometers in height. Purpose is… cloaking, repelling and trapping."

"What is she talking about?" Mikoto asks Stiyl.

"A trap's been activated," he answers. "We're right in the middle of it."

"Short hair?" Index seems to finally take notice of Mikoto. "What's with that ridiculous outfit?"

"Ugh," (Even that mini-nun can see through it?) Mikoto hangs her head. "If I had a token for every…"

Just then, Mikoto feels a strong magnetic aura coming from the building they just escaped. One more masked man appears, his mask's color was silver.

"Hey," Mikoto calls out to everyone. "I think the boss is here."

Everyone matched the direction of her gaze. The masked man walks a little bit closer to them then stops. It turned its head around towards the various people there, it seemed to be analyzing them.

"We have a lot of questions for you," Stiyl steps up front. "For now we'll just start with your name."

The masked man stayed silent for a moment. Mikoto senses a change in the air. The robed man is suddenly surrounded by sparks of electricity.

"Tempus951," he suddenly spoke. "I am that which saves through time."

(A sorcery name,) Touma tenses up. (This guy is ready to fight.) "Kazakiri, take Index and get out of here."

"Right," Hyouka nodded and grabs the little nun.

"W-wait! There's nowhere to-" Index's voice disappeared with a single leap from Hyouka.

"Fortis931," Stiyl speaks his magic name out loud as he calls flames to his hands. "I'll tell you why my name means the strongest."

"I thought your name was Jack," Mikoto is puzzled.

Stiyl looks at her as if he had suddenly forgot about her. Then he looks at Touma, "So is Bug Zapper going to stay and fight too?"

"The more the merrier right?"

"My name is not Bug Zapper!" Mikoto charges up.

"Before we start," Touma calls out to the masked man. "Do you mind giving us some information here? Like maybe a sappy back story or your reason for doing these things? Heck we don't even know what you're doing really."

"I will destroy this city," Tempus suddenly spoke. "As for why, did you not hear my introduction?"

"So what," Mikoto taunts. "You think you're a time traveller? Newsflash, time travel is impossible."

"Impossible for your time," Tempus replies. "Do not underestimate the technology of the future, especially not the combination of science and sorcery."

Touma and Stiyl looked at each other in surprise. The combination of science and sorcery?

"Sorcery?" Mikoto scoffs. "Now I know you're crazy."

Touma and Stiyl remain quiet.

"Can you not see the power I wield?" Tempus asks as his sparks grow larger. "I have had one week to prepare. To save the one I swore to save, I will destroy this city. Tonight is when the city will crumble."

"Not if we have anything to say about it," Touma yells. "If you think that we're just going to let you destroy the city, well we're going to shatter that illusion of yours."

"You call yourselves heroes?" Tempus reaches inside his robes, it looked as though he was reaching inside a pocket or something.

"She's the only one that does that," Touma points at Gekota-man.

"HEY!"

"Hey hero," Tempus' gloved hands pulls out what appears to be a coin. "You ever heard of, a railgun?"

"What?" Mikoto and Touma looked at each other quickly, then back at the masked man. The railgun is Mikoto Misaka's signature move as the number 3 level 5 in Academy City.

"A super electro-magnetic gun, it's an application of Flemming's kinetic momentum theory. You use it to launch projectiles with a little extra oomph." Tempus flips the coin upwards.

Mikoto feels a sudden surge of magnetic force around the masked man.

"Why am I getting a bad case of deja vu?" Touma's heart jumped. He tried to quickly search his memories, but nothing came up. However he had a feeling something like this had happened before.

"Allow me to demonstrate it for you. Catch!" Tempus flicked the coin their way, charged with electricity and magnetism.

"Get down!" Mikoto shoves both Touma and Stiyl to the side and tackles them to the ground. The coin flies by at tremendous speed, barely missing the three though they can feel the waves of air from the attack.

"When it's launched at three times the speed of sound, even something small packs a big punch."

Mikoto gets up first, (H-how! That was what I said that one time against that idiot, practically word for word! Who is this guy? Some kind of stalker? No, wait. He's an electromaster. I get it now, somehow he's been stalking me, doing research to try and challenge my power. Stealing my signature move.) Mikoto's body is suddenly surrounded by electricity. (He's probably just a high level 4 at best, I'll just show him how big the difference is between a level 4 and a real level 5!)

"Misaka?" Touma is becoming worried.

"Stay back you two," she tells them. "I feel my title as the strongest electromaster is being threatened."

"Ah, Misaka? The whole city is in danger, can't you just let your pride go so that we can beat him?"

"I'll make this quick," Mikoto smiles under her mask. "There's no way he can hurt me with electricity anyway." She jumps on ahead to challenge the masked man. And she's easily blasted back by a powerful bolt.

"Misaka!" Touma runs to where she lays.

Mikoto breathes hard as she gets up to one knee. "Ow, what the hell? How did that hurt me?" Completely standing up, she faces the masked man again. "Natural electricity and man-made electricity, I should be immune to all kinds."

"Maybe there's something different about his," Touma knows the true answer, it was magical electricity. "Something about his power that makes his electricity different enough to hurt you."

"Ohohoo, if that's the case then the opposite is true, I'll be able to hurt him with my own electricity!" Mikoto jumps on ahead again.

"Misaka!" Touma runs after her.

Tempus fires another bolt at Misaka, she dodges easily but the attack continues to Touma, who blocks it with is right hand. Misaka fires a powerful bolt, Tempus counters with his own. Touma charges in but is forced to block again. The masked man creates two large orbs of electricity, about the size of a desk, and throws them at both Touma and Mikoto.

Both them evade the balls easily, but Mikoto senses the orb behind her. She turns around and quickly blocks an electric attack that it launched at her. Touma sees this and turns to face his orb. He brings up his right arm just in time to block an attack. However they forget who launched the orbs in the first place, they're both blasted by Tempus.

Mikoto and Touma hit the ground near each other, the two orbs fly back next to Tempus. As the two combatants get up, a huge surge of fire erupts from behind the masked man. The man turns around himself to see what was happening. Sityl had somehow snuck behind Tempus and unleashed Innocentius.

"You haven't forgotten about me, the strongest, now have you?" Stiyl breathes out smoke through the mask, he was smirking inside.

Innocentius roars to the skies as Tempus silently sparks up electrical power around him.

**XXX**

* * *

Author: Time for the final battle! Touma, Stiyl and Mikoto against Tempus, a powerful electromaster! But those words, and that Railgun that he used... Is he really Mikoto from the future? And the meaning of the name Tempus951, "That which saves through time"... What happened in the future?

Basically my dream duo of Stiyl and Mikoto fighting together (as battle partners, I ship ToumaXMikoto), aside from Touma, it's my favorite from the Magic side and my favorite from the Science side working together against... a time traveller that claims to have both Science and Magic. It'd be better if they didn't have the costumes though. Haha...

Notes and Ramblings: So basically I had to keep Kuroko away from Gekota-man, as well as get Misaka 10032, Otohime, Kuroko, Hyouka and Index away from the fight against Tempus. In case you haven't figured it out yet, "Tempus" is Latin for "Time". Originally, Tempus was going to come down from way above, as a very powerful lightning bolt and destroying the abandoned building in the process, it would've been much cooler but that'd make problems with the battlefield so I just had him appear mysteriously.

From this chapter, I feel like making a Gekota-man one shot, complete with superhero and magical girl cheese. I don't know yet if Stiyl/Jack O'Lantern should be a sidekick or a villain.


	6. Voltage

Voltage

"Hyouka!" Index yells. "We can't leave them!"

"Don't worry," Hyouka tells her. "I'm sure they'll be alright."

"That's not what I'm talking about!"

"Huh? What do yo-" Hyouka's face suddenly hit something invisible. Luckily they weren't all that high off the ground so the fall damage was very minimal.

Index twitches in pain for a little moment, "Hyouka, are you alright? ACK!"

"I'm alright Index," Hyouka responds. "See? I'm fine."

"D-D-DON'T SAY THAT WHEN YOU HAVE NO FACE!"

"Huh?" Hyouka tries to feel her face. _Tries_ to, it must have shattered when she hit the invisible wall. "Oh. Give it a few seconds, it'll come back."

Index cries and runs away full speed.

"Index!"

...

"Haa, haa." Index had run out of breath.

"Index?" Hyouka comes up to her.

"Hyouka?" the little nun turns around slowly. "Phew, your face is back."

"I told you to give it a few seconds."

"But it's so creepy and weird when someone is talking to you with no face on."

"I'm sorry," Hyouka scratches her cheek. "So, um, do you know what's keeping us from getting away?"

"It's a powerful barrier, it's probably the same kind that knights used in the olden times so that they can have their private duels. But it could be an ancient Greek battlefield spell, mostly used by the Spartans to make sure they achieved total victory. It's likely this spell uses those as a base.

What this does is it prevents enemies from escaping. It also conceals them from the outside which means everyone outside of the barrier won't see us or anything that's happening inside."

"Is there any way to break through it?"

"There's Touma's right hand," Index starts. "But the only ways to stop the spell is for the caster to willingly stop it themselves or for the caster to be defeated."

"Basically, we need to get back."

XXX

* * *

"What is that?" Mikoto asks in surprise at Innocentius.

"That is our chance!" Touma gets up and rushes Tempus.

Tempus looks back at Touma and fires a bolt of electricity. Touma blocks it easily as Mikoto comes up from behind him, with a coin on her hand.

Tempus quickly fires another beam aimed at Mikoto. The girl fires her signature railgun right into it, it disintegrates long before it reaches the target.

(I guess firing a coin right into an electric beam would cause it melt faster.)

Tempus again sends his two electrical orbs after Touma and Mikoto. Innocentius roars out loud behind him, a large cross of fire forms on one of its hands and raises it above the masked man's head. Tempus' arm charges with a lot of electricity.

Tempus fires an incredibly powerful blast at the flaming weapon. Innocentius pays no heed to it at all and just begins to drop it on top of the man. A loud crash and a lot of hissing is heard at the impact, smoke and dust rise from where Innocentius is. Stiyl looks upwards to see Tempus standing above him in midair.

(No way!) Mikoto dodges a blast from one of Tempus' spheres. (He's able to repel the planet's magnetic force to stand in midair?)

"Innocentius," Tempus begins talking. "Essentially a demon of flame with powerful regenerative abilities. There are only three known ways to defeat it. Destroy the runes, which appear to be scattered all around the area, even I cannot take them all down fast enough. Defeat the spell caster, whom will have been weakened due to the power needed to summon the demon, too easy. Disintegrate the demon over time faster than it can regenerate, that is too time consuming. However..."

Tempus raises an arm, sparks of electricity erupt from it and begins encircling the masked man. "It can also be defeated if it is taken out in one shot! By the powers of the king of gods, lend thy strength of the skies unto me. I call upon thine power of light so that I may pass judgment upon my foe." Electricity begins to gather around Tempus' raised hand, forming the shape of a rod, covered in electricity. Tempus grabbed the rod with his hand. "Behold, the mighty weapon made of light, that was wielded by Zeus, the king of gods." The masked man readies to throw the weapon downwards at Innocentius. "Now, feel the divine judgment!" Tempus yells out in Greek, "(Lightning Hammer)!"

"Innocentius!"

The flaming demon roars out loud, it swings its flaming cross upwards to the masked man. Tempus throws the lightning rod downwards. In an instant the rod broke through the cross and through Innocentius, then the area where the rod hit was engulfed in a pillar of very bright light. Innocentius lets out a loud roar as it vanishes into nothingness. When the light fades, all that was left was a black circle where the attack landed. Stiyl's runes that was placed around the visible area blacken and burn.

The spheres that Touma and Mikoto were struggling with suddenly vanish, though the two did manage to witness the attack. It was kind of hard to miss a gigantic pillar of light.

"What the hell was that?" Mikoto is extremely shaken up by the show of power. "That had to have been way more than one billion volts. Just how did this guy get so much power?"

"Whatever it was, it looks like it really drained him," Touma notes. "Hey, maybe it's just concentrated better than yours. He didn't cause a blackout."

"Well EXCUUUSE me, idiot!"

Tempus slowly floated to the ground in the middle of the black circle, breathing hard. (I forgot, his Innocentius isn't that strong yet. I didn't need to use Lightning Hammer, I could've used something weaker.) He hears loud running noises coming his way. All three of his opponents were rushing him, Touma was the closest. Tempus charges up his fist and strikes the ground has hard as he could. Some kind of shockwave erupts out of the ground and moving fast. Mikoto jumps high to avoid it, Stiyl and Touma are blown back.

The girl sees the masked man retreat around the building and gives chase.

After turning the corner, Mikoto sees several floating pieces of metal, some of them dent and bent weirdly, as if they were punched or kicked with great force, and one of them is flying right at her! She reacts quickly enough to stop it with her own magnetism. Mikoto senses something unusual above her, she sees Tempus diving down with his fist ready to strike. The electromaster moves the plate she caught in his way. A large dent is made on the metal. (Strengthening himself with electricity?)

Touma and Stiyl caught up with her as the masked man jumps off the metal onto the ground. Tempus fires a powerful bolt their way, Sityl jumps in to stop it with fire. The masked man then hurls a couple metal pieces, Mikoto stops those. Touma charges through the opening and is closing in fast. The masked man's hand closes and suddenly opens with a blinding flash.

Touma stops to shield his eyes. Upon opening them, he finds himself surrounded by 4 walls of metal. One of them opens, with the sight of Tempus dive kicking at Touma! The boy rolls forward low to the ground. The masked man hits the back wall with such a force that the piece of metal went flying. Tempus tries to follow up with a punch, instead he greatly dents a wall.

Stiyl appears from the side and did a flaming uppercut at Tempus' chest. An explosion occurs at impact, but the time traveller stood his ground. The original's Walking Church was obviously more powerful than the doppelgangers, five times more.

The flame magician's fist erupts with more magical fire. Stiyl takes a step forward to put more physical power into the attack. Tempus' feet slide back slowly, his robes were protecting him from the power of the flames, but the intense magic could burn through at any moment!

"Ashes to ashes," Stiyl begins chanting. "Dust to dust!" Stiyl unleashes more flames, their power begins to lift Tempus off his feet. "Squeamish!" Stiyl lays off the attack for a moment, he leans back and readies his hands while Tempus temporarily floats. "Blood Rood!" The flame magician uppercuts with both hands into the time traveller. A massive surge of flames erupts from the impact and the time traveller rockets upwards.

Mikoto senses powerful magnetic forces following the masked man. Several of the metal pieces followed him upwards. She jumps on one. "Oh no you don't!" She attaches herself to the metal while letting the masked man do the magnetism. "What?" The flames died down so it's easier to see that the masked man had set the metal pieces up like a pair of rails perpendicular to each other, pointing down. At the center was the man standing on a small piece. Mikoto takes control of the piece she's standing on and floats underneath the electrocannon. (No way! He's planning to use himself as ammo?)

Mikoto fires a strong blast of energy. The masked man's platform flies forward to intercept it. Then an orb, only half as big as the originals, flies after Mikoto. She manoeuvres the plate she's standing on like a glider, while firing bolts against the hostile sphere. She feels strong electromagnetism coming from the masked man's cannon, it's starting to cackle with power. (What kind of calculations is this guy using? This is insane! More importantly, where's he aiming at?)

Mikoto looks down at the only target the cannon could be pointed at, that spiky haired boy. He had just ran back inside the abandoned building. Mikoto's senses surge as the cannon is getting ready to fire. She looks up at the masked man, who is covered in electrical energy. The man had placed himself in a position ready to kick off the back of the cannon. This reminded Mikoto of something she'd rather not think about, so she put all focus on the battle. She tried attacking the flying cannon, but the orb always stops her.

Mikoto pulls out a coin and aims for the cannon, she intends to blow it up with one shot. The sphere suddenly flies very close to her, magnetically grabs and eats the coin. Enraged, Mikoto tries blasting the sphere, it dodges or counters every time. She tries pulling out another coin and begins to concentrate. The sphere flies by again and eats the coin.

With very little time left, she pulls out one more coin, but prepares to fire while it's still inside her hand instead of on top of her thumb. The orb merely floats in front of her hand, waiting. Mikoto can feel the man getting ready to fire, she has to make the shot now! Mikoto flips her coin up from inside her hand to the top of her thumb, then quickly flicks it at three times the speed of sound. The orb disintegrates and the cannon explodes.

And then... the abandoned building's wall caves in and the bottom floor explodes. Tempus managed to fire himself before Mikoto's railgun destroyed the floating cannon. Debris from the building and the cannon begin to rain down.

Mikoto sees Touma run out of the building as it crumbles and dives after him. "Hey idiot! Whatever power you have, turn it off!"

Touma hears her voice and turns around. He sees Gekota-man flying his way on a piece of metal, like an improvised Geko-glider. The boy raises his left hand and is lifted up, up and away. "Thanks, Gekota-man."

"Do you want me to drop you?"

"Can you wait until we're closer to the ground?" Touma asks nervously, their altitude dips slightly, he panics. "Not now, not now!" There was a huge cloud of dust at and around where the building used to be.

"Where's Jack?"

"There!" Touma points to the pumpkin headed hovering rocket.

"You seem well," Stiyl tells Touma. "How did you escape?"

"I just hid behind the wall right next to the door until that guy fired himself."

The three combatants slowly descend as the dust clears. A huge pile of rubble lay where the building used to be.

"Think it's over?" Touma asks.

"No," Mikoto answers. "It's not as strong as before, but I can still feel him. He probably made a barrier to shield himself in there."

"Don't tell me we have to dig him out," Touma scratches his head.

"I'm perfectly fine with leaving him in there," Mikoto mentions.

"He's too dangerous to leave alone," Stiyl speaks out. "And I don't think your police will be able to handle him."

"There's no way he could've gotten out of that unscathed," Mikoto starts. "He shot himself out of an electromagnetic cannon. I can't measure the speed but it was definitely way past the speed of sound. No normal human being would be alive even before getting out of the cannon at that speed! There's the G forces, there's friction, there's a whole lot of other things I can't remember at the moment.

Even though he was strengthening himself, he still went through a solid concrete wall, a few stories worth of floors, and the ground! That's multiple fatal impacts that his body had to endure. Did I forget to mention he was going at the speed of sound through all of those things?! I'm more surprised that he's still conscious enough to keep using his powers after all that and while the building fell on top of him!"

"So are we leaving him in there?" Touma asks Stiyl.

"No."

"Why are you ignoring me?!" Mikoto roars.

"Looks like we're digging," Touma sighs as he walks forward.

"Wait!"

The debris explodes in a brilliant light. At the center was Tempus, heavily damaged but still conscious.

(Damn, I went overboard again.) Tempus forces his body to stand using his electrical power. (But, she saw it. That's all that matters. I'm almost out, it's time for the finale.) There were electrical bolts linking his limbs together, like some kind of supernatural prosthetic support.

"That's not just impossible, it's inconceivable!" Mikoto stares at the standing figure of Tempus. To stay standing after all that's happened in the battle, only a superhuman could withstand all that.

"It's time to finish this for good," Touma announces as he charges forward. Stiyl follows right behind him and Mikoto behind Stiyl.

Tempus fired a quick bolt to force Touma to defend. Mikoto fired a bolt of her own, the masked man blocked it. Stiyl unleashed a flame whip. Tempus brought up a barrier to stop the attack.

Mikoto jumps way over Tempus to attack from behind. The masked man managed to create his twin spheres again, but they were only a third of their original size. He fires them at Touma and Stiyl, both of them dodge easily.

"Behind you!" Mikoto yells.

Touma and Stiyl turn around. Touma uses his right hand to stop the stream of electricity from the orb, Sityl uses a blast of fire. The spheres continue to fire streams of electricity at them, forcing them to stay frozen on defence.

Mikoto fires her own bolt to get the masked man's attention. Tempus blocks her attack and sees her holding a sword of black sand. Mikoto uses the magnetic forces to propel her towards the man. Tempus magnetically grabs a metal platform and uses it to block. The chainsaw-like sword grinds into it uselessly.

Tempus pushes the metal wall away, to force distance between him and Mikoto. Mikoto jumps over the wall, but the masked man wasn't finished with it yet. He swings it around fast, aiming for Touma!

"Look out!" Mikoto cries.

Touma sees the incoming sheet of metal, but he's still blocking the sphere's electrical attack.

"HAH!" Kazakiri appeared out of nowhere and dropkicked the piece of steel, stopping it in its tracks. She quickly picks it up and throws it at the sphere troubling Touma, it vanishes as it gets absorbed into the metal. "Go!"

Touma nods and rushes to the masked man. Tempus shoots a bolt, but Touma dodges it. He tries again, this time it's been blocked by a blast of fire from Stiyl, who managed to free one hand to do so. Touma's gotten real close now, Tempus can only shoot one more bolt to try and stop him. It didn't happen, Mikoto hit him in the back by a very powerful attack. The attack also sent him stumbling forward, his face went flying right into Touma's right fist.

Tempus flew up a good few inches, and back a good few feet. His body stumbles around a bit from the impact and rolls around before coming to a complete stop, face up, arms and legs spread, mask heavily cracking.

"Oooooowwwwww," Touma shakes his fist violently. "Jeez that hurt, what's that mask made of? I've punched rock golems and ice golems before and it didn't hurt this much."

Stiyl and Mikoto ignore him and walk over to the fallen Tempus. The cracked masked man was breathing heavily, obviously hurt and weakening from the battle.

Index come running up next to Hyouka, "I finally..." she was breathing hard from all the running, and the fact that she was hungry. "Made it..." Index scans the area. "It's over... already? But... I know I saw... Zeus' Lightning Hammer!"

Index, Hyouka and Touma meet up with Mikoto and Stiyl, they all observe the masked man as the lower half of his mask breaks off completely.

**XXX**

* * *

Author: Apologies to Greek speakers, I wanted to try putting "Lightning Hammer" in Greek, but according to one pronunciation site, Lightning = Asstrapee. Yeah...

Anyway, that's the final battle, several changes were made as I typed it. The first draft was only half as long, so I extended it greatly. The original finisher was supposed to be Mikoto's Railgun after Touma and Stiyl made an opening for her, but it didn't feel right for some reason, so I finished it with the classic Touma finisher!

Actually it was this very chapter that I decided to have Tempus' lightning powers be Greek based (since Norse and Thor are already in use within the universe, and the only other major mythology I'm moderately familiar with is Greek)

Finally, the battle is over, or is it? It's time to unmask Tempus and find out who he really is!


	7. Nightmare

Author: Man, the science in this chapter was a ridiculous pain in the neck. And I only took a glimpse of it, a snowflake at the top of an iceberg, no heavy calculations that'd take weeks, hell, months, to do.

* * *

Nightmare

"Hahahaa..." Tempus laughs a little with what energy he has left. But the true voice is revealed to be that of a female, a young woman by a good estimate. Her mask's bottom half is completely broken off but the top half hides continues to hide her eyes. "Good job heroes, you beat me in battle. But, you haven't won yet."

"What do you mean?" Touma asks.

"I can tell you that what I had planned to destroy the city with will be activated soon," Tempus answers. "Can you tell me the time?"

"Why?"

"It's only a few minutes until 10 pm," Stiyl informs, putting his cell phone back in his pocket.

"That soon?" Tempus sounded surprised. "I was expecting at least a few more minutes worth."

"What have you done?" Touma's voice becomes harsher.

"You'll see," Tempus answers. "In time. Hahahaa... I suppose I should tell you what's going to happen since it'll start very soon. I've set up special points all around the city. It took a week to get them set up properly, but now they're ready. I just need the right alignment of lights."

"Alignment of lights? You mean like stars?" Touma looks up, it was partially cloudy today. "I don't think you're going to get what you want with this sky."

Mikoto also looked up, curiously, while putting her mask aside to get a better look.

"Who said I was using the sky?" Tempus smiles.

All the lights in the city suddenly go out. Then only certain lights turned back on.

"Huh?" Index feels a great surge of magical power flowing through the area. "This is...! There's no way!"

"What is it Index?" Stiyl asks.

"The Wrath of Olympus," Index looks up.

Everyone follows her gaze. A very, very large ball of energy begins forming above the clouds.

"It's a gathering of power from every god on Oylmpus," Index begins to explain. "Every negative feeling they have for the human race gathered in one place. Once it's done, it will drop slowly until it's about 1 kilometer off the ground, then the powers of every Olympic god will be unleashed into the city, all at the same time in every direction."

"Why would it drop slowly?" Touma asks.

"Those gods have very big egos," Index answers. "They want their victims to know what is happening. Apparently this guy has the ego of all the gods combined. But that barrier is still up. No one knows about this but us."

"So that means it's up to us to stop it."

The noise of someone dropping to their knees catches everyone's ears.

It was Mikoto, her limbs were limp as she started upwards, there was a great fear in her eyes.

"No no no no no..."

"Misaka?" Touma is understandably worried.

"This can't be happening, this can't be happening..." Misaka hangs her head and holds it. "This is a dream right? It has to be. No, I got hurt, I felt it. But maybe I was dreaming I was hurt. Quick! Someone hurt me!"

"Huh?" Touma is rightfully confused, as is everyone else but one.

*CHOMP*

"Yeeaaaoow!" Mikoto unconsciously let out a wild blast of electricity, shocking Index through her teeth.

The Esper Fried Nun twitched in pain on the ground unconscious.

"This isn't a dream," Tempus called out to Mikoto. "Your city will fall, there's no stopping it now."

"Unless," Stiyl starts. "Bug Zapper, do you think you can fire this guy like your rail-"

"NO!" Mikoto protested loudly as she got up suddenly, her legs wobbled. "Not that, please, not that." Mikoto drops to her knees again.

Touma walks over to her and gets down on knee. "What's wrong, Misaka?"

"I-it's nothing," Mikoto answers in a very shaky voice. "I just had a very bad dream last night."

"Um, can you share it with us?" Hyouka cuts in.

"Hyouka!" Touma protested.

"I agree with her," Stiyl steps up. "You're the only one that can stop that." Stiyl points up, the ball of energy continues to grow larger. "And she's the only one that can send you up there."

"Dreams can be precognitive," Tempus suddenly speaks out. "What you saw in your dreams could very well happen in the future." Tempus gives out a slight chuckle. "But if you're worried about it now, then that future just might be here."

"You're going to have to be quiet now," Stiyl demands.

"Um, so, do you think you can tell us?" Hyouka pries deeper. "We might be able to help."

"I guess," Mikoto lets out a deep breath. "I need to get this off of my chest anyway. Basically, it's something similar to this. This big attack coming from the sky, and this guy is the only one that can stop it. There were a lot more people in my dream, I can only recognize some of the ones from Academy City, like the number 1 Accelerator and the number 4 Meltdowner. There were like a hundred or so nuns, some tall woman with a really long sword, some red headed guy with a barcode on his cheek, and some more."

Stiyl and Touma take all this in silently, knowing who she was talking about, the rest of Necessarius. Hyouka was just confused but just continued listening.

"The attack was coming," Mikoto continued. "Somehow, we knew that it was going to do something before it even hit the ground, or it wouldn't even move from where it was up there, it didn't matter. We had to get this guy up there somehow. That's when someone suggested that shoot him like I do my coins. Of course, I panicked at the thought. I wasn't given enough time to make the proper calculations, we had to do it quickly. But, something messed up, I might have done the calculations wrong or I forgot an important variable. I was able to fire him into the attack and he stopped it. But he didn't live through it. I caught his falling body, and it was... it was too horrible to describe. He was... barely alive... and then... he died... in my arms..."

Mikoto couldn't hold back the fear any longer, she leaned towards Touma and started pounding on his chest. "Why why why?" Tears begin to swell up. "Why was I the one that killed you? Why did you die? Why couldn't we have found another way?"

"It's alright Misaka, I'm not dead."

Everyone lets Mikoto cry into his shoulder a little.

"Are you done crying?" Tempus breaks the atmosphere. "The attack is finished gathering. It's descending as we speak. From about 40 kilometers up, I'd wager about 30 minutes before it reaches the correct height to destroy the city."

Mikoto forces herself to calm down. Touma gets up silently and walks over to Stiyl.

"Hey, do you think you'll be able to fly me up there?"

"Are you kidding me? I have enough trouble flying by myself. Besides, your right hand."

"Right," Touma looks at his hand.

"Can't you have that girl throw you up there?" Stiyl points to Hyouka, who was poking the unresponsive Index corpse.

"No, not her," Touma replies. "My right hand again." Touma avoids going into details.

"So in the end it's back down to Bug Zapper," Stiyl and Touma turn to Mikoto, who still has her knees on the ground watching the attack push through layers of clouds.

"I didn't want to put this on her after hearing all that," Touma sounds regretful.

"Circumstances dictate action," Stiyl tells him. "Under this circumstance, we need to take action now. If you won't talk to her, then I will, and it won't be pretty."

Touma nods before he silently walks back to Mikoto he stretches out his arm, "Come on Misaka, let's do this."

"No," Mikoto falls back and scurries away a little. "Please, no. I can't! I already told you I can't! Not without killing you."

"I won't die," Touma tells her calmly as he slowly moves closer. "I promise you that."

"Don't lie like that!" Mikoto tears up again. "I hate it when you lie."

"When did I ever lie to you?" Touma stretches out his hand again.

Mikoto meekly stays silent, recalling everything that had happened between them. Looking for something to counter him with. She could come up with nothing, even if there really was a time that he lied to her, she couldn't find it.

"But why?" Mikoto asks, terrified. "Why? After what I told you, even though you know I'll kill you. You still-"

"I believe in you, that's all there is to it."

Mikoto fell silent, and frozen. His words just now really messed up her brain and her emotions. Before she knew it, she was standing up, holding his hand. She nervously jerks her hand back and turns around. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down.

"20 minutes!" Tempus calls out randomly.

"Alright!" Mikoto breaths deeply again and slaps her cheeks. "Let's do this."

"Um," Hyouka steps forward. "I can help if you want me to."

"Thanks," Mikoto smiles. "Now, let me think. We're going to need... these things and some of that."

Mikoto magnetically grabs a bunch of metal sheets and other metallic objects and gathers them around her.

"Jack O'Lantern! We'll need your help!"

Sityl just realized that he's still wearing the ridiculous pumpkin head, he sighs hard, especially at the fact that he can't take it off yet. "Touma Kamijou. Make sure that Tempus doesn't move." Stiyl makes his way to where Mikoto is.

"'Doesn't move', he says," Tempus chuckles a little as Touma sits down right next to the half masked time traveller.

Touma just watched the unmoving body carefully, without a word.

"Aren't you going to ask me something?" Tempus speaks first.

"To be honest," Touma scratches his head. "I don't even know what I want to ask."

"Why don't you start with something simple?"

"Alright, are you a male or female?"

Tempus laughs a bit, "That is simple. I'm female. These masks were made to disguise my voice. It makes it easier to disguise myself against Anti-Skill and Judgment. It really helped that they were looking for a 'man' with a mask, then a woman without one."

"Then, what's your name?"

"I told you, Tempus 951."

"Okay, what's your real name?"

"Youngest Princess Dragon God."

"Huh?" Touma gives a dumbfounded look.

"That's my name."

"What kind of name is that?"

"What kind of name is Index?"

"..."

"..."

"Alright, if you didn't want to tell me your name you could've just said so. At least tell me why you're doing this."

"'I am that which saves through time.'"

"'Saves' through time," Touma repeats. "Whoever it is that you want to save, do you really need to destroy all of Academy City to do it?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why else? That death was because of the Science side."

"Who's death?"

"Hahaha," Tempus laughs. "I think I'll keep that a secret for now."

"..."

"Hey, I have an idea. Let's make a bet."

"A bet?"

"If we're both alive and conscious after the attack hits. I'll tell you everything. My real name, the person I was trying to save, even how I travelled through time."

"The attack won't hit," Touma clenches his right fist. "I won't let it."

"Let's bet on that then," Tempus tells him. "It will be your right hand against the wrath of every god of Olympus. Do you really think you can stand up to dozens of gods? That reminds me. TEN MINUTES!"

"SHUUT UUP!" Mikoto yells back as she and Hyouka holds two pieces of metal together while Stiyl welds them.

"What the hell is that?" Touma finally looks at what they're making.

"What is it? I can't move my head."

"It looks like that same thing that you made in the sky."

"Is that so? So she's making an electrocannon. It's no railgun, but at least your chances of living are significantly increased."

"There's more, I see some kind of giant, metal gazebo?"

"Huh. Didn't think she'd do that. Oh wait, I think I get it."

"Hey!" Mikoto calls Touma over. "Hurry up!"

"Good luck, hero," Tempus says as Touma jogs away.

Touma takes a good look at what they made. A very, very tall electrocannon, two thirds of it is made with debris from the fallen building and the last third uses the building under construction. There's some kind of metal gazebo bullet. There was a place to put his feet in, possibly to keep him in place while it flies, those were placed to the right of the center pillar so that he can hold onto it with is left hand.

"Let's do this," Mikoto tells him. "Get on."

"Alright," Touma puts his feet (shoes included) inside the slots. With his left hand he holds the I-beam at the center. He hears footsteps behind him, Mikoto had also stepped on the platform. "Misaka?"

"We do this together," Mikoto declares with a look of determination. "Got it?"

"Okay," Touma nods.

(Alright,) Mikoto thinks to herself. (This is it. Since I don't think I can strengthen him with electricity because of his power, I had to think of something else. Using a railgun type launcher is too risky, even with his body. By using a gradual takeoff instead of an instantaneous burst, the negative effects on the body from the G forces will be reduced. This cover will shield us from wind resistance and friction as we fly. Then I can use my magnetism to keep us steady while still propelling us forward. It's now or never.)

"FIVE MINUTES!"

"Would someone PLEASE shut that guy up!" Mikoto yells out. She then takes deep breathes to calm down and think. "I need to concentrate, there's a lot of calculations involved here and I can't afford to mess this up." Sparks fly out of her head and make their way around the cannon. Soon the whole cannon is covered in electricity, rings of bolts rolling upwards across its frames.

Tempus can feel Mikoto charging up. "Even if you move at the speed of sound, it takes 3 seconds to fly a whole kilometer. But get too high and the atmosphere turns against you. You only have one shot to pull this off and time is running out. Can you really go up against all the gods of Olympus, Past Mikoto Misaka?"

Touma feels the platform levitate slightly. The energy output from Mikoto to the cannon increases steadily, the bottom part of the cannon starts glowing from all the electricity.

"Kazakiri," Mikoto calls out. "Can you give me an estimate of how high it is right now?"

Hyouka looks up and stares at the ever enlarging orb, adjusting her glasses. "It's about... 3 kilometers away. We have about 2 minutes left until it hits the 1 kilometer above the planet."

"Alright," Mikoto calls out. "I'm going to launch this thing in a minute thirty. Hey, idiot. I'm just going to fly this thing into that attack, you have to get your powers ready on your own. I'll give you a signal."

"Understood," Touma says without turning around, he smiles confidently.

Mikoto lets out even more electrical power to the cannon. Touma sets himself up to be comfortable, holding onto the center pillar with only his left hand.

Stiyl quickly changes his cigarette while still wearing the pumpkin head, (If we get out of this alive, I don't know how I'm going to report this situation. Something tells me I shouldn't reveal to anyone what really happened here.)

"Here we go!" Mikoto lets out more power, the platform vibrates. "Three... Two... One...! FIRE!"

They accelerate, exponentially increasing speed as it climbs the cannon. Touma and Mikoto feel powerful forces press against them as they climb. At the top of the cannon, they rocket out with an extremely loud BANG. As soon as they lift off the cannon, Mikoto struggles with the platform. Keeping it steady while still exerting force to push it onward.

At this speed at and at the target's altitude, it will only be a few seconds before they collide. But to Mikoto, every second felt a whole lot longer. Even when she's concentrating very hard on her calculations, her mind is full of doubt and worry. Will we able to stop it? Will we die? Will _he_ die? With each passing moment, with every closed distance, those fears grow. She struggles with herself to find the strength to carry on, but there's been too much put on her shoulders.

"_I believe in you."_

_His_ words suddenly echoed in her mind, erasing all the negative thoughts she had. Her face now displays utter determination, and a smile. Her power seems to have gotten a mysterious boost in strength and control.

"NOW!" Mikoto yells at the top of her lungs.

"OWAAAAA!" Touma clenches his right hand and beings it forward as hard as he could. The Wrath of Olympus eats through the metal covers, and collides with Touma's right hand.

The sphere shatters into countless pieces, flying in all directions across the sky, and gently falling like snow.

Touma holds onto what's left of the center pillar, seeming to admire the view. He felt a jolt, like an elevator. The platform was descending slowly.

"Listen, Misaka."

"Not now," she cuts him off. "Wait until we reach the ground. This could take a while though."

XXX

* * *

"Phew," Kazakiri sighs as she observes the falling lights.

"Now it's truly over," Stiyl breathes out some smoke through his mask. He walks over to the half masked time traveller. "You're coming with me."

"I'm sorry," Tempus tells him. "I'll be long gone before you could even take me to the airport."

"What do you mean?"

"Better to show you first," Tempus replies. "Take off one of my gloves."

Stiyl spreads some cards around the half masked time traveller, then kneels down next to an arm.

"Hahaha... If I was capable to doing anything, I would've done it."

Stiyl pulls out one of Tempus' gloves. Several small lights fly out of it and fade away into the air. The lights are slowly flowing out of Tempus herself. Her body seems to be disintegrating somehow, half of her hand had already turned to light and vanished.

"What is this?"

"This," Tempus begins. "Is reality rebuilding itself."

"What?"

"Let's wait until they arrive," Tempus tells him. "I made a bet, his right hand against the wrath of the gods. Since I lost, I will explain to him everything."

"Alright, but you better not vanish until you reveal everything."

"Haha... I'm trying not to," Tempus jokes. (That's right, you deserve to know everything, don't you...)

**(Brother Touma...)**


	8. Revelations

Revelations

Touma and Mikoto's platform finally touches the ground.

"Misaka!" Touma catches Mikoto as her body suddenly went lifeless. "She's completely exhausted. I can't blame her after all that she just went through."

"Touma Kamijou," Stiyl calls for him. "Get over here quick so that we can get some questions answered."

"Alright," Touma carries Misaka with both of his arms and heads over to where they all are. Index is still passed out from being electro-fried.

"Kazakiri," Tempus suddenly calls for Hyouka.

"Y-yes?"

"Do you mind taking off my outer cape?" Tempus asks. "He'll probably spend some time looking for a place to lay Misaka down."

Hyouka follows Tempus' instructions to remove her cape and lays it down for Touma and Mikoto.

"Thanks Hyouka," Touma carefully places Mikoto down on the cape and sits down right next to her. "Now tell us every-what is happening to you?"

"Straight to the point, huh?" Tempus chuckles. "But it's better this way. Right now, reality is making me disappear, since the past me will no longer become the me that I am here."

"Oh no you don't!" Touma reaches for Tempus' disappearing arm with his right hand. "It's not working!?"

"This is the law of the universe, of time and space." Tempus chuckles through the half mask. "Let's not waste any more time on this. First off, everyone remembers my sorcery name, correct?"

"Tempus951," Stiyl answers. "'That which saves through time.'"

"You still haven't told us who you were saving," Touma added. "All you told me was that it was the Science side that killed that person."

"It's most definitely someone from the Science side," Tempus confirms. "In fact, she's sleeping on my cape as we speak."

"WHAT?!" Everyone screamed out loud at the same time. They all turned to look at Misaka for a moment, she was still soundly asleep.

Touma turns back to face Tempus angrily. "What are you talking about? Who did Misaka kill?"

"You."

"What...?" Touma fell silent.

"That dream that she told us," Tempus starts. "It actually happened, or rather, it will happen. There will be a force, a shadow force, that will rise. You and your faction will try to stop it."

"His faction?" Stiyl asks suddenly. "What faction? He has an army?"

"There's really no other name to give it," Tempus answers. "It was simply called the Kamijou faction because he is the one link that keeps them all together. And among its ranks include the strongest fighters of both sides, such as several powerful Espers and Necessarius."

Stiyl gives out a very displeased hum.

"By the end of it, you cornered the mastermind," Tempus continues. "But his last resort was a spell similar to Wrath of Olympus, but on a much grander scale. It's also a much faster than my spell, about three times faster.

Well, Mikoto already told you what happened at this part of the story. However, with your death, these… shadow forces began to spread a lot faster than thought possible. It appears that their initial appearance and battle, as well as that mastermind with his desperation spell, were all ploys and gambles to try and get you killed, obviously they succeeded.

Science and Magic allied together against these shadow forces, but to no avail. Eventually those still fighting were forced underground as mere resistance fighters. I was found by them, and was taught magic."

"I hate to interrupt," Stiyl cuts in. "But perhaps you should tells a bit more about these 'shadow forces'."

"I can't," Tempus replies. "We don't want to risk anymore changes in the past. If you were to act against them now, who knows what will happen."

"We'll stop them, that's what," Touma tells her.

"All of Science and Magic combined couldn't do anything against them," Tempus retorts. "You won't be able to do anything significant. Besides, you have to build up to their level by taking out the weaker organizations first, getting stronger along the way. Also by gaining more and stronger allies."

"You said you were found and taught," Stiyl wishes to continue. "By whom?"

"I was found relatively late in the struggle," Tempus answers. "By what was left of the faction. Which included Stiyl, Index and Misaka. They continued to fight the losing battle, until the world was in ruin and ruled by the shadow forces. Even then, they continued to fight. In the meantime, I was told everything, even what had happened to you. In order to be helpful to everyone, I studied magic.

Eventually someone suggested time travel, of course there were several possibilities; such us creating a parallel world where the future changed while the original world still existed or that time is a stable loop and could not be changed at all even with time travelling, and much, much more. But since there's no way to know until it's been done, they all decided to try it.

By using knowledge of both Science and Magic, they started to gather and plan. Rare items, parts, ingredients… remnants of your faction combed the world for all the necessary supplies, personal, knowledge.

In the meantime, they all agreed, to send _me_, of all people. They told me their plans, and what they wanted me to do. I disagreed of course, as much as I wanted to save you, I didn't want to be your enemy."

"You still haven't told us who you are," Touma cuts in.

"Let's save that surprise for later," Tempus replies. "Right now I need you to concentrate on my story. Where was I?"

"You were explaining how you were chosen to be sent to the past," Stiyl informs her. "Also, while you're there, you should tell us who taught you magic."

"The ones I learned magic from," Tempus starts. "Were you and Index."

"Me and Index," Striyl repeats. "There's no way Index would use those grimoires-"

"Times were desperate," Tempus interrupts. "Everyone was desperate. While I studied several different kinds of magic; water, light, wind, plant, magnetism, lightning. I excelled in lightning. It was Index that taught me the high level spells like Zeus' Lightning Hammer and Wrath of the Gods.

I don't know why I chose lightning, but I ended up getting another teacher for it. Mikoto Misaka. She taught me the how to use my magical lightning similar to how she used her scientific lightning. There's stuff I still couldn't get though, like the iron sand, and I have to concentrate very heavily to use her railgun attack."

"I would like to know," Stiyl interrupts. "How does this 'Misaka' feel about all this?"

"Sityl!" Touma shouts angrily.

"I don't think I have the right to say," Tempus answers. "But she's been keeping a diary since Touma died. She gave it to me, I have it here. You can read it afterwards if you want."

"It'll probably just disappear," Stiyl mutters. "Like you are."

"May be," Tempus agrees. "This whole time travelling thing is extremely confusing. It was worth a shot though."

"So," Touma starts. "How did you travel back through time?"

"With both Science and Magic," Tempus answers. "Neither side could achieve it on their own, but both sides combined proved greater results. We used several of Index's grimoires to find and research all kinds of time magic, as well as researched all kinds of scientific theories and machines for time travel. It took many years of planning and preparation, I had eventually accepted my role as the one to change the past. I did it only because I believed, because we all believed, that this would work, that your death could be prevented."

"Are you still not telling us who you are?" Touma asks.

"Soon," Tempus answers swiftly.

"How about the reason you were chosen?" Stiyl questions.

"That's easy enough," Tempus starts. "Apparently, I had a natural aptitude for magic. Which is how I learned several different magics so quickly. My mana reserves far surpassed yours, even while I was a student. It's how I was able to keep fighting despite all the powerful attacks I used. You would not believe how much power I had to use in order to cast Wrath of Olympus, as well as Soul Split."

"Wait," Touma cuts in. "You mean you weren't fighting us at full strength?"

"No," Tempus smiles. "That kind of puts some perspective on how powerful the shadow forces are, doesn't it?"

Stiyl grumbles through his mask.

"It's something to do with being related to a dragon," Tempus explains. "As in, a real dragon, it turns out they really existed. They never clearly explained to me how or why my mana and dragons are connected."

Stiyl vaguely remembers Touma's dragon during the Deep Blood incident.

"Anyway," Tempus continues. "Their only fear about sending me is my close connection to you."

"Close connection? How?"

"I chose to return to this time, or rather one week before now, because I remember how the days went. Which made it easy to catch you. Of course there were some unexpected surprises, like that Judgment girl, she wasn't in my memory. Probably had something to do with one of my splits causing trouble around the city while I set things up. Luckily for me, all my preparations were done by the time Necessarius decided to do something."

"I don't think you can dance around the last question for much longer," Touma tells her. "Who are you? You say you have memories of today, which made it easier to take me. But I remember seeing no one else at the park at that time. Also, you say you have a close connection to me. Just how do you know me?"

"Are you really that dense?" Tempus smiles. "Brother Touma...?"

"Brother?" Hyouka repeats.

"Brother Touma?" Stiyl repeats.

"I-it can't be, Otohime?"

"The one and only!" Tempus laughs. "Your younger cousin Otohime Tatsugami! Or would I be the older cousin in this case?"

"Don't mess with me!" Touma yells angrily. "If you really are Otohime, then why? Why did you try to kill us? Why didn't you just try to talk to us?"

"I asked them all the same questions," Tempus replies. "'Why does it have to be like this?' 'Why can't I just talk to them?' 'Why me?'"

"..."

"They never gave me a clear answer, just an objective and even more questions. I hated it." Tempus pauses, as if to hold back something. "I went along with it though, hoping to find some other way if the time travel did succeed. And when it did, I was really temped to just tell you and Misaka about what happens."

"So why didn't you?"

"Because I was scared," was her answer. "Every time I tried to approach you or Misaka, many questions started flying into my head. 'Would they believe me?' 'Will just telling them really change anything?' 'What if I just make things worse?' In the end, I just went through with their plans. I had to become your enemy. I had to show no mercy, because the real enemy ahead will not show any. Even if it meant that I might kill you."

"What? But I thought you were here to save-"

"The plan was just to save you from Misaka. If I killed you early by accident, the world would fall to ruin anyway, just a lot sooner. Though I did try to avoid killing anyone, despite all my doppelgangers' personality problems."

"Couldn't you have just helped us out when these shadow forces arise?" Stiyl asks.

"No," Tempus answers bluntly. "I'll spare you all the complicated discussions and theories everyone had, even I don't get them. Basically, they thought it best to have their past selves change the future on their own, instead of someone from the future forcibly changing it for them. By guiding Misaka to find a way to shoot you without killing you, then the future that I come from will be changed completely with your own power, not ours."

"Aragh!" Touma violently scratches his head. "This is all too much. Of all the things I've been through so far, this is the strangest."

"Heheh..." Tempus giggles. "Based on the stories I've been told. It's only going to get stranger for you."

Touma hangs his head, "Just my luck."

Tempus giggles. "That's so like you, Brother Touma."

"So..." Touma starts. "What now?"

"Now, we just wait for me to disappear," Tempus answers. "Which is really strange. I can feel myself disappearing but not my clothes or equipment. May be inorganic material follows different rules when it comes to time travel?"

"Otohime," Touma sounded concerned.

"Don't cry for me," Tempus tells him. "I'm the villain of this story, remember?"

"Dammit! How can I not cry for the death of my cousin?!"

"You still call me that, even after everything I did? Hehe, hahaha!"

"Why are you laughing?!"

"Because, what everyone said about you is true, your naivete and you stupidity! Hahaha..." Tempus laughs haughtily. "But they're also right about your kindness. Even after all I did, you still care... that's more than enough for me." Lights begin to fade from Tempus' neck. "There we go... Hey, Brother Touma? Would you mind removing this hood and mask? I'd like to see you with my own eyes before I go."

"Alright..."

Touma carefully pulled off the hood and took off her mask. Her brown green hair seemed to be in the exact same style as his own. Her green eyes shone beautifully, yet there seemed to be a sadness inside them. It looked like she cried recently.

"Otohime..."

"I told you not to cry, cause you might make me cry too."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"For me? No, this is how it should be. How I, how everyone wanted it to be. But, take care of your younger cousin. It's me after all."

"Don't worry, I'll do what I can. I promise you that."

"I know you will..." Tempus' head and face are almost nearly gone. "Now smile for me, you can't see me off with that sad look of yours! Like this!"

Now Touma can clearly see her holding back her tears as she smiles for him. He smiles back at her with the happiest look he could pull off.

"Hahaha, what kind of look is that? Thanks for that though, now I can disappear happily. I love you, Brother Touma. Goodbye..." Tempus' smiling face gradually disappears into light and the light vanishes into the skies.

Touma stands up slowly as the rest of Tempus' lights fly away and fill the air around him until they vanish. One little speck flew real close to his face and pecked him on the cheek before disappearing completely.

XXX

...

XXX

"So," Stiyl breaks the silence. "What should we do now? Something like this, I don't think I'll be able to report truthfully to my superiors, they're probably going to call me crazy. I'm going to need some time to figure out what I should say to them."

"Stiyl," Touma called him in a quiet, yet friendly voice. "About Otohime..."

"The villain that attacked Academy City was a fanatic magician with a grudge against science, and is unrelated to the Imagine Breaker a.k.a. Touma Kamijou," Stiyl puffs a smoke through the pumpkin mask. "Well, that sounds convincing enough, doesn't it? At the very least, it's a lot more believable than this whole time travelling nonsense."

"Thanks."

"Don't go thanking me," Stiyl mentions sternly. "I just don't want to be labeled insane by my superiors."

"Um..." Hyouka speaks up. "What should we do with all this?" She picks up Tempus' clothes, several items fall out including a small electric book and a pink cell phone with two Gekota straps.

Instinctively, Touma picks up the cell phone and inspects the Gekota straps. (This is ours, isn't it?). He opens up the phone and sees the picture of him and Otohime from a New Year's festival. Touma turns it off, closes it and puts the phone in his pocket. He then reaches for the book.

"Wait," Stiyl stops him by grabbing his arm. "Do you really want to know the contents of that book?"

"Um..." Hyouka starts to speak. "Didn't Tempus say he had Misaka's diary, that she's been writing since you died?"

"So that's... Misaka's diary of the future?"

"That girl did say it was up to us if we wanted to read it," Stiyl picks up the book.

"Don't," Touma stops him. "That's... that's something we shouldn't see. Burn it."

"To tell you the truth, I agree." Stiyl throws the book upwards and sends a blast of flame to turn it into ash. "The future has been changed now, so there's no point in reading about a future that will never be." Hyouka throws up Tempus' clothes and Stiyl burned those too.

"Yeah..." Touma watches as the ashes scatter in the wind.

"Now, what should we do with these two?" Sityl points at Index and Mikoto.

Touma pauses to think, "Stiyl, you should take Index. I'm going to need my bed for tonight to take care of Misaka."

"If that's how you want it," Stiyl picks up Index's body. "But shouldn't you bring her to a hospital?"

"Her sister is already there with someone, it's very complicated," Touma tells him.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me," Stiyl picks up Index and begins to walk away.

"Do you need any help?" Hyouka offers to Touma.

"I'm not sure if I should ask you to carry her," Touma answers. "Even if you did, we don't know when you might disappear, and that could be bad. Just help me put her on my back and stay with Index."

"Okay," Hyouka helps Touma put Mikoto on his back and wraps Tempus' cloak around her shoulders, being careful not to touch Touma's right arm.

"Thanks Kazakiri, for everything you've done for me tonight."

"A-a-ah!" Hyouka panics. "I-i-it's n-n-nothing really! W-we're friends after all, right?"

"Yeah, we are. I'll see you later."

Hyouka nods and smiles happily then goes after Stiyl and Index.

XXX

* * *

Touma makes it into his dorm somehow uneventfully. He carefully lays down Mikoto on his bed, takes her mask off and puts the covers over her. He then reaches into his pocket and takes out Tempus' cell phone. (You might be gone, and time might treat you as if you never existed, but I don't want to forget.) He wraps it around the cape and stores it in a place that only he knows.

There was a slight mumbling coming from his bed. Touma turns to see Mikoto snuggling herself in, "Good night, Misaka." With that, he walks into the bathroom to sleep.

XXX

* * *

Author: The battle is over and the mysteries are solved. So the only thing left is to finish this story.

One thing I thought about adding is a 'future' scene with Stiyl (who has a gruff beard), Index (who's still flat), and Mikoto (who 'grew' only a little bit). It would've had them witnessing their time, their world, disappearing similarly to Otohime (turned into lights), and being replaced with the 'time fixed' one. Also Mikoto sees a faint image of the now alive Touma before she fades out happily and her 'time fixed' self shows up to meet him.


	9. Aftermath

Aftermath

"_It's over you fools!" laughed the evil man. "Apocalypse is here!"_

_Touma and Mikoto look up to see a large gathering of energy in the sky._

"_This is just like... that time..."_

"_Misaka," Touma calls for her. "Let's do this..."_

"_Right!"_

_Very quickly, Mikoto manages to pull together a cannon and fires both herself and Touma into the sky. Touma's right hand destroys the giant energy before it could do whatever it was supposed to do._

_Mikoto gently lands both her and Touma on the ground. The Kamijou faction gather all around them._

"_We did it, Misaka."_

"_We did..."_

"We... diiid..." Mikoto's eyes twitched as she started to wake up. She slowly opens her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar room. It appears to be a dorm, though it very lacking compared to hers. Mikoto gets up slowly, sitting on the bed, this room is quite cramped. (Where...?) She checks herself to see that she's wearing the costume she bought last night. (So, all that really happened? But... I can't remember...).

She hears a clicking sound not too far away. A door opens and someone walks out of it.

"Aaah..." Touma yawns with a hand in front of his mouth. "Huh?" He sees Mikoto sitting on his bed and raises his hand in greeting. "Morning, bug zapper!"

"Y-you!" Mikoto jumps up in surprise and points her finger angrily. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" Touma answers casually. "This is my dorm."

There was silence for a few seconds as Mikoto processed the information. Then with a poof, her face went completely red.

"Y-y-y-y-your dorm!?" Mikoto panics. "W-w-w-what am I doing here?" For some reason, her hair starts sparking out. "What the hell happened last night?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down!" Touma jumps forward and places his hand on Mikoto's head. "Don't get all zappy this early in the morning."

With her electricity stopped, Mikoto suddenly calmed down, dropping her arms. Her face went redder than before.

"Alright," Touma slowly lifted his hand off of her head. "A lot things happened last night. But for now I'll make us some breakfast. I hope you don't mind eggs, that's all I can cook for breakfast right now."

"T-that's fine..." Mikoto sits back down quietly, but nervous.

Touma starts cooking fried eggs. "So, how much do you remember from last night?"

Mikoto breathes hard and calms down, trying to recall the events of the previous night. "The last thing I remember, is putting us down on the ground after stopping that attack."

"Yeah I thought so," Touma speaks out. "You just collapsed after that."

"So, what happened afterwards?" Mikoto asks. "With those two masked guys?"

"Two?" Touma tries to recall. "Oh, him." The second one was Stiyl with his pumpkin head. "Well, the guy in the pumpkin mask is some kind of secret officer. He was after the other masked guy."

"You seemed to know that pumpkin head."

"We've met before," Touma sighs. "Not because I wanted to though."

"Let me guess, one of your strange situations?"

"Yeah, more than one..." Touma sighs as he continues cooking. "Anyway, with his help, everything's settled. The other masked man is gone now, there's no need to worry anymore."

"Huh?" Mikoto turns to him worriedly. "Why do you sound so depressed?"

Touma realizes he let his voice drop a bit into a sad tone. The realization of who was inside that mask, as well as the story behind it, still haunts him. "It's nothing, I'm just worried about something else."

"Like what?"

Touma finishes cooking the eggs, placed on two separate plates along with some rice. "I think we need to figure out what to do with your sister and Shirai." He places the food down before Mikoto, he sits himself down to eat.

"One of my sisters and Kuroko?" Mikoto repeats, then she remembers. During the situation last night, her sister was injured, and Kuroko took her to a hospital.

"That's the reason I had to bring you here," Touma and Mikoto continue their breakfast. "I didn't want to risk someone seeing you and your sister in two different places."

"What time is it?" Mikoto searches around for a clock, she finds one and reads the time. It's still early, there's some time before visiting hours. Mikoto starts to think.

"Is there something wrong?" Touma asks.

"I'm worried about my sister," Mikoto answers. "Kuroko is sure to visit her at the first opportunity. I'll have to get there first." Mikoto quietly and quickly finishes the small breakfast. "I'm sorry, do you have a drink?"

"Just water," Touma gets up and takes the dishes. "If you're going to go, what will you do if someone notices you outside of the hospital?"

Mikoto looks at herself. "I should be fine, I just need my mask." She finds the frog mask on top of the TV. "Here it is."

"You're going now?" Touma hands a glass of water to her. She takes it and drinks it quickly, returning the empty glass to him.

"The sooner the better," Mikoto puts on her mask and opens the glass door to his balcony. "You know how Kuroko is. I need to get to my sister ASAP." Mikoto props herself up on the railing. "Thanks for breakfast." Mikoto jumps away.

"Guess I'll see you there," Touma put the glasses away and put on his shoes. "What kind of gift should I get them?"

XXX

* * *

Mikoto hurriedly jumps across the buildings. By chance, she spots a store on the way to the hospital. Despite her hurry, she decides to quickly buy something for her little sister, while in costume. She hurriedly scans the snacks isle, trying to figure out what her sister might like.

(Since they're similar to me, they might like the same stuff as me.) Mikoto quickly searches for something that she herself might enjoy. Some expensive cookies, the same kind she offered that one idiot after the incident with her Sisters and Accelerator. She doesn't even know why she took a liking to these particular cookies, maybe it's because it's something related to him? (Ugh, I can't waste time here. I need to get to the hospital)

Several customers gave her weird looks when she wasn't looking, but the female cashier was the kind that had seen it all, so she didn't care a single bit.

Mikoto hurriedly continues to the hospital.

XXX

* * *

Someone knocks on the room door.

"You may come in, Misaka responds to the knocking of the door."

The door opens, "Hello!" Otohime pops through the door.

"Oh, you're that boy's little cousin, Misaka remembers your face, giving a smile from seeing you in fine health."

"The doctor said I'm okay to leave now," Otohime happily skips to Misaka's bedside. "I just need to wait for Brother Touma to pick me up."

"I see, is 'Brother Touma' in this hospital too? Misaka asks in earnest."

"No, he's not here," Otohime answers. "I actually don't know what happened to him. All I was told was that we were brought here by Judgment."

"Oh, Misaka sighs, disappointed at the news, as she had hoped to see him."

"So how are you, Sister Misaka?"

"'Sister' Misaka? Misaka repeats slowly in surprise."

"You're a close friend to Brother Touma right? You two looked so cool when you fought that strange guy!" Otohime jumps and twirls excitedly. "You were like, bam bam bam!"

Misaka watches silently as the girl enjoys herself.

"Hey, whenever you're free of the hospital, the three of us should go somewhere fun!"

"The three... of us? Misaka questions."

"You, me and Brother Touma, silly!" Otohime smiles and giggles a little. "Thanks to those weirdoes we lost a whole day!"

"You're right, Misaka thinks about the proposition."

"I just hope Brother Touma doesn't act all weird again," Otohime started pouting.

"What do you mean, weird? Misaka asks curiously."

"The last time we were together," Otohime starts answering. "We went to the beach, but Brother Touma was acting all weird and crazy."

Misaka stayed quiet so as to listen to her story.

"I don't know what happened to him," Otohime continues. "He keeps calling me 'Bug Zapper'. It was like I was someone else to him. And a couple days later, he gets sent back to the hospital for something I don't know about. I wasn't able to spend much time with him, even though it was a long time since we saw each other before then, it was like he'd forgotten about me. But I will get him to spend some time with me this time for sure!" The little girl is suddenly fired up.

("Bug Zapper"? Isn't that that boy's nickname for Sister? And he was hospitalized? Judging by the number of known incidents which involved that boy, something else must have happened during that time. Perhaps I should inquire him about this later.)

"Huh?" Misaka turns to the window suddenly, as if she sensed something.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong, Misaka says in a reassuring voice."

"If that's the case, what do you think of my idea?"

"Please, let me ponder for a moment, Misaka kindly requests. 'Are there any places in Academy City during the school break that could provide a small group of people a lot of... 'fun'? Misaka asks openly.'"

"Actually, I don't know," Otohime tilts her head with a finger on her cheek. "I was hoping one of you might know."

(We have received your request #10032. Replies Misaka 10039.)

(Someplace 'fun'... wonders Misaka 13577.)

(Perhaps a carnival or an amusement park. Misaka 19090 suggests.)

(Awaaa! Misaka wants to go to an amusement park too! Misaka Misaka hops around at the- Ow! Why'd you hit me?! Misaka Misaka demands an explanation for the sudden attack!)

(Is there such a place open at this time? Misaka 13577 asks the network.)

(There are a few small ones, Misaka 10039 answers while searching the internet.)

(Stop hitting me! Misaka Misaka begins to fake crying as-)

(Ignoring #20001, which of them seems would work the best? Misaka 19090 asks.)

(This carnival seems to be the most recommended, Misaka 10039 reports. It's at the edge of the city though, but the prices for everything are slightly below average compared to the rest. It's also an indoor amusement park, part of a very large mall. It appears they have some sort of special costume day for tomorrow. Where you can come in wearing a costume, and a costume party late in the evening. Even if you don't bring your own costumes, the park will be happy to rent some out. Misaka 10039 concludes her report. Uploading data now.)

"That is perfect, Misaka suddenly speaks out loud."

"What?" Otohime is puzzled.

"There is a place we can go, Misaka tells young girl."

"There is? Yay!" Otohime twirls around a bit.

"If you are willing to wait until tomorrow, it's a costume day. We can wear costumes and go to a party. Misaka informs."

"Alright!" Otohime sounds even more excited. "It's a promise!" The young girl grabs Misaka's hand and pinky, which she wraps her own pinky around. "All three of us are going to have some fun tomorrow!"

"Promise...?" Misaka looks at the two hands locked with their pinkies.

Otohime suddenly shakes the hands up and down. "Don't forget, okay!? Otherwise something bad will happen to you!"

"But, should you really be out of your room? What if that boy comes to pick you up and they couldn't find you? Misaka asks."

"Oh no! I didn't think of that! I'll see you later, bye!" Otohime rushes out of the room.

Misaka continues to look at the hand and finger that made the promise.

After a few seconds of silence, the window opens by itself. Gekota-man climbs through. Misaka's hand returns to normal.

"Phew, I was worried someone would see me just sticking to the wall out there. It's a good thing you got that girl to leave before that happened."

"Sister... What's with that ridiculous outfit?"

Mikoto stumbles on one foot. "Not you too!"

Misaka tilts her head in confusion.

"Well, whatever." Mikoto stands back up and lays the bag down on the table beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel fully recovered, I am certain that the doctor will allow me to leave today. Misaka reports."

"That's good to hear," Mikoto breathes a sigh of relief. "So, who was that little girl?"

"She is that boy's little cousin, Otohime Tatsugami. Misaka answers the easy question."

"Huh? That idiot's little cousin?" Mikoto suddenly remembers that there was a young girl that was taken with Touma and her sister. "What's she doing here?"

"She came to visit that boy during the break, Misaka answers another easy one."

"No no no, I meant in the hospital."

"She was in danger of being injured, so I protected her. She only suffered minor injuries. Misaka replies."

Mikoto remembers that idiot explaining what happened to her sister the previous night, but somehow anything involving this cousin of his was completely left out.

"So that's how you got hurt," Mikoto puts all the pieces together.

"I'm sorry, Sister, for not being able to protect myself better. Misaka apologizes deeply."

"Don't worry about it, you did your best," Mikoto smiles proudly. "That's all I can ever ask of you."

"Sister..."

"But now we have a problem, Kuroko is the one that brought you here, and she's sure to come visit at any minute."

"Kuroko? Ah, Shirai Kuroko a.k.a. the #1 on the Misaka Network's avoid at all costs list. Misaka realizes whom you're talking about."

"Hey now, what kind of weird list does the network have?" Mikoto sighs. "Anyway, before she gets here we'll need to switch places. Since you're feeling alright there'll be no problems if the doctor comes too."

"Switch places? Misaka wonders what you might be suggesting."

"Just as I said, we'll switch places," Mikoto explains. "Kuroko is sure to spot the differences between you and I. You can just leave early and do... whatever it is that you do."

"Are you sure about this, Sister? Misaka asks for complete confirmation of this plan."

"Yeah, don't worry about me," Mikoto smiles. "I can deal with Kuroko."

"..." Misaka tilts her head.

"Is something wrong?"

"Did you bring some extra clothes that aren't so strange? Misaka asks hoping to avoid wearing the ridiculous outfit."

"Just switch with me!" Mikoto stomps, frustrated.

XXX

* * *

Touma waits patiently at the elevator, holding a small bouquet. The rooms he wanted to visit were only on the 2nd floor, but he was patient. That, and he's had enough of stairs, avoiding them unless there's an emergency. And at this moment, one such emergency catches his eyes.

Shirai Kuroko, the Level 4 Esper with the power of teleportation, and a hostile relationship with Touma, is that emergency. Although she and him were more worried for the girl that looks like Misaka last night, at this moment her hostility towards him will resume. Right now she's chatting with some friends of hers, totally not noticing him.

(This isn't good!) Touma bolts for the stairway and rushes upwards. (Is Misaka here already?) He runs through the hall, quickly checking the room numbers as he passed them. He finds the room he was looking for and immediately opens the door.

"Eh...?" Touma blinks twice quickly, making sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. With his luck he should've expected something like this to happen.

"..."

"..."

Both Mikoto and Misaka were standing in the middle of the room, their heads turned to his direction, likely from him suddenly opening the door. They were frozen, and didn't even have time to be surprised. It looked like they were just analyzing the current situation. Of course, Touma has been in this kind of situation several times before, and they never ended well. Mikoto finally gets herself together, her face redder than ever before, and grabs her gift to her sister angrily.

"WHY YOU SON OF A-"

"W-w-w-wait Misaka! Shirai-agock!" Touma's head is hit hard with the box of chocolates.

Mikoto quickly closes the door magnetically. She pants extremely hard. (Seriously! The nerve of that guy!)

"Sister, I'm finished changing, Misaka reports."

"How can you so calm about this?" Mikoto asks stressfully. "Don't you feel, I don't know, irritated?"

"Why would I be? This isn't the first time that boy's seen me naked. Misaka answers."

Mikoto suddenly freezes in shock, there seemed to be a dead air around her and her expression is completely dead stiff.

"Ah, come to think of it, because we are practically identical, wouldn't that mean that that boy has seen you naked too? Misaka tries applying some nonsensical logic."

(Wha-wha-wha-what? What the hell happened between these two? Why-how-whuh?) Mikoto's brain starts to fry thinking about this. Her head hurts so much that she holds it in pain. "Argh!"

Then a voice just outside the door snaps her back into place, "Well well well, what have we here?" It was Kuroko's voice, she's just outside!

"That's Kuroko!" Mikoto quickly grabs the hospital garb and puts it on. She pushes her sister to the window.

"Has my Sissy finally seen how worthless you are and rejected you? Ohohoho..." Kuroko continues speaking through the door.

"Go go go!" Mikoto opens the window. "You need to get out of here!"

"Eh? Why are you giving these to me? Why would I want something that Sissy rejected?" Kuroko seems to be making conversation with that idiot just outside the room.

Misaka 10032 gently hops out of the window while Mikoto jumps onto the bed and quickly arranges the covers on top of herself.

"She'll accept them if it's from you, right? Besides, it looks like you forgot to bring a gift."

"I-i-it can't be... In my hurry to see Sissy again, I had forgotten to get her a present of affection! Am I losing to this ape? No, no, NO! I can't let that happen! I'll be back with a gift!"

"Just take this, I haven't really thanked you for taking her and my cousin to the hospital. So, thank you. And besides, we both want her to feel better, right?"

Mikoto's face flushes a little, there was a moment of silence outside. Then all of a sudden...

"SISSY!" Kuroko warped in just above Mikoto.

"Kuroko!" Mikoto instinctively hits the teleporter out the still open window.

The teleporter instantly reappears right next to the bed, "That's mean Sissy!"

"Then don't do those crazy things while you're in the hospital!" Mikoto shouted back.

"You look really well, Misaka," Uiharu and her friend Saten comes through the door.

"Hey," Mikoto waves to the two. "It wasn't much, I was just knocked out. All I really needed was a good night's rest to heal up. I'm just waiting for the doctor to give me the okay to leave."

XXX

* * *

Touma moved on to another room that he wanted to visit. This is the room of his young cousin, Otohime.

"Brother Touma!" Otohime jumps to greet him.

"Whoa!" Touma fell backwards as Otohime hugged him.

"I'm so glad you're alright!"

Touma puts his hand on top of her head. "It looks like you are too."

The two of them stood up quietly.

"Come on," Touma reaches out his hand. "Let's get you out of here."

Otohime giggles as she held Touma's hand. "Hey, hey, Brother. Me and Sister Misaka made a promise to have fun together tomorrow."

"Sister Misaka?" Touma remembers that Misaka's sister was with them the previous day. "Oh, you did?"

"Yep! We're going to an amusement park, the three of us!"

"Huh? Me too? I've got homework and no money!"

"Big Brother!" Otohime starts pouting hard. "You'd rather do homework than spend time with me?"

Touma starts getting nervous, "N-n-no... of course not."

"Really?" Otohime press against him angrily.

"Really! Touma Kamijou swears he will put his little cousin above his homework!"

"That's better," Otohime giggles and smiles.

Touma hold his head and sighs hard. (Well, it's not like I was expecting to do them anyway. And besides...)

_Take care of your younger cousin. It's me after all..._

(I will... I promised, didn't I? Just watch me, from wherever or whenever you are...)

"Hey Brother Touma, did you already visit Sister Misaka?" Otohime asks as they're about to pass Misaka's room.

"KUROKO!" A loud noise is heard from inside the room.

"I think she's busy with her friends right now," Touma mentions. "I've already stopped by anyway."

"Oh really? Okay! So, what should we do when we get out of here?"

Touma merely puts a hand on her head and ruffles her hair a bit, Otohime giggles happily.

**END**

XXX

* * *

Author: I think the only change in this ending is that Touma and Otohime were going to meet up with Gekota-man by accident, with Otohime asking what's with that ridiculous outfit, and Misaka 10032 escaping.

Then a short epilogue focusing on Mikoto and her friends, Saten bringing up rumours of a vigilante in a costume, Mikoto spitting out a drink after finding out the vigilante is Gekota-man. Then an epilogue to the epilogue with Gekota-man getting a cartoon series, much to Mikoto's embarrassment.

Author Notes and Ramblings: And that's that. My first Index fic. I like to stay a few chapters ahead of my releases (plus I also like to make certain that I'll finish a fic now, after leaving a couple of them on hiatus for over a year before coming back to them -_-;), which is why I was able to put out several short stories in between chapters near the end.

...

Now, why did I make a story for Otohime? Honestly, I've forgotten. I just really wanted to make a ToumaxMikoto action fic, but somehow during the planning, the shift went from those two to Otohime, most likely from my problem of wanting as many characters in a fic as I possibly can (which also includes Stiyl and the originally planned Accelerator.) (I was likely doing some research into Mikoto when it mentioned Otohime during the Angel Fall arc and brought her in from there.)

Of course action fics need a good villain, some of the easiest characters to make use of (outside of OCs) are the ones that barely have screen/novel time, which Otohime fits that criteria perfectly. I just had to give her a reason and power.

While I try to avoid OCs, I do use them whenever I need to, however I'm (somehow) more okay with an OC-like characters based off of an existing character (in this case, Tempus is based off of Otohime), just gotta work the story around their personal stories and powers. Though it's still easy for them to fall into the same OC traps within fanfiction.

(Hell, did you see how overpowered I made Tempus? Holding back Mikoto, Stiyl and Touma and she's not even at full power, needing to set aside LARGE quantities of magic for her Wrath of Olympus spell, having been previously weakened by using Soul Split AND all five doppelgangers losing their respective battles. (Actually the only thing the doppelgangers have over the original is that they actually managed to injure their opponents, but we can just write that off as Tempus having better control of herself and not really wanting to hurt anyone XD))

As for her abilities and powers, I chose electricity/lightning just to give her a closer relation to Mikoto, that and it's one of my favorite powers (alongside ice, and her mask being silver is also because of favoritism, silver is my favorite color). The studying different magics and the doppelganger thing were to give variety to the battles.

I actually didn't think about making her electric powers Greek based until the actual fight against Tempus, I was trying to think up lightning/storm gods for her to call upon to defeat Innocentius. But since Norse and Aztec mythologies are taken, I went with Greek.

...

I do want to make a sequel with Touma and Otohime at the amusement park, but I haven't thought up a good story for it yet. I've got some ideas but nothing concrete, and not enough to make a whole fic out of.

The bit about the costumes was originally for a separate fic all together, set during New Testament, with everyone dressing up as Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 and Dissidia characters.

(ie. WORST as Aerith, Accelerator as Sephiroth, Last Order as Eiko, the Sisters as Ellone, Selphie, Yuna and Garnet, Motoharu as Cloud, Aogami as either Zell or Kihmari, Seiri as Tifa, Shiage as Squall, Rikuo as Rinoa, Mugino as Lightning, Saiai as Fujin, Index as Prishe or tricked into a Malboro, Mikoto as Mikoto, several magic side characters appearing and participating for whatever reason, Touma forced as either a chocobo, tonberry or a mog, etc...)

But I have little to no knowledge/understanding of several novel only character's personalities, which would make the whole thing quite difficult to pull off. Not to mention the large quantity of characters would make managing such a story a nightmare.

Anyway, till the next story!

**THANKS FOR READING!**


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